THE  CONSERmnVEi 

of  MARTIN  LUTHER 


GEORGE  M.  STEPHENSON 


JAN  7  1922   ^^ 


/i 


^CAi  ^ 


BR  325  .S73  1921 
Stephenson,  George  Malcolm, 

1883-1958. 
The  conservative  character 


The  Conservative 
Character  of 
Martin  Luther 


/  Bv 
GEORGE  M.  STEPHENSON,  Ph.D. 


JAN  7   192? 


PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN  PUBLICATION  HOUSE 


COPYRIGHT,    192 1,    BY 

THE    BOARD  OF    PUBLICATION    OF 

THE    UNITED    LUTHERAN    CHURCH    IN    AMERICA 


TO 
MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  set  forth 
within  the  compass  of  a  few  pages  the  more 
permanent  elements  in  the  work  of  Martin 
Luther.  An  effort  has  been  made  to  single 
out  in  a  Ufe  crowded  with  great  events  and 
minor  incidents  the  conservative  thread  run- 
ning through  it  all.  If  the  attempt  has  been 
in  a  measure  successful,  the  reader  will  find 
here  portrayed  a  man,  who  at  every  critical 
moment,  fixed  his  mind  on  the  one  purpose  of 
restoring  the  true  faith  without  an  abrupt 
break  with  the  past.  The  reader  may  form 
his  own  conclusions  as  to  the  principles  for 
which  the  reformer  contended;  relative  to 
their  conservative  nature  he  must  be  bound 
by  the  testimony  of  history. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  list  the  many 
works  of  research  which  have  been  consulted 
by  the  author:  they  may  be  found  in  the  ex- 
cellent bibliographies  published  separately  or 
in  the  standard  biographies  and  histories. 
The  author  desires  to  record  his  gratitude  to 


vi  PREFACE 

his  former  teacher,  Professor  Ephraim  Emer- 
ton,  whose  well-balanced,  scholarly  lectures 
have  stimulated  a  deep  interest  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  and  her  great  leaders.  He  also 
acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the  late 
Doctor  T.  E.  Schmauk  and  Doctor  W.  L. 
Hunton  for  helpful  suggestions  and  kindly 
criticism. 

George  M.  Stephenson. 

Minneapolis,  Minnesota. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  Formative  Years 9 

II.  The  Catholic  Reformer 22 

III.  The  Break  with  Rome 43 

IV.  The  Radicals  at  Wittenberg 64 

V.  The  Peasants'  Revolt 84 

VI.  The  Marburg  Colloquy 103 

VII.  The  Augsburg  Confession 125 


The  Conservative  Character 
of  Martin  Luther 


CHAPTER  I 

Formative  Years 

^  Martin  Luther  was  born  into  an  age 
which  yearned  for  a  reformation.  The 
Church  of  Christ,  from  an  organization  which 
had  Hfted  Europe  out  of  pagan  darkness,  had 
become  a  monstrous  theocracy,  a  great  sal- 
vation machine  which  befogged  the  minds  of 
men  and  obscured  the  way  of  salvation. 
Great  puritanical  movements,  such  as  the 
Albigenses  and  the  Waldenses,  had  been 
crushed  out  with  ruthless  thoroughness;  and 
the  prophets  of  a  new  age,  John  Wiclif  in 
England,  John  Huss  in  Bohemia,  and  Jerome 
Savonarola  in  Italy,  had  thundered  in  vain 
against  corruption  in  high  places. 

The  man  who  was  destined  to  revolution- 
9 


10  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

ize  society,  to  defy  popes  and  emperors,  and 
to  give  to  the  world  a  new  faith  was  born  in 
the  little  Saxon  village  of  Eisleben  on  the 
tenth  day  of  November,  1483.  In  his  veins 
flowed  the  blood  of  stern,  frugal,  hardwork- 
ing peasants,  who  brought  up  their  son  under 
a  strict  discipline.  He  was  taught  to  regard 
his  parents  and  his  superiors  with  fearful  and 
superstitious  reverence.  He  must  pray  to 
the  saints  to  intercede  for  him  against  the 
righteous  judgments  of  a  terrible  and  cruel 
God.  Christ's  vicar  on  earth,  the  pope,  and 
his  lieutenants,  the  priests,  must  be  regarded 
with  reverent  awe.  The  doctrines  of  the 
Church  were  so  firmly  impressed  on  his 
young,  plastic  mind  that  never  in  his  whole 
life  did  he  waver  in  his  belief  in  the  redeem- 
ing influence  of  Christianity.  In  spite  of  a 
restless  mind  and  years  filled  with  honors, 
triumphs,  trials,  and  discouragements,  he 
carried  to  the  day  of  his  death  the  influence 
of  his  simple,  pious  parents. 

Luther's  father  was  a  practical,  hard- 
headed  man,  whose  education — such  as  it 
was — had  been  acquired  in  the  harsh  school 
of  experience.     Self-made   man   though  he 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  U 

was,  he  knew  something  of  the  value  of  an 
academic  training  and  wished  to  spare  his 
son  the  misfortune  of  going  through  life  with 
his  own  meagre  learning  and  limited  horizon. 
No  doubt  the  boy's  mental  alertness  and  in- 
dustry confirmed  him  in  his  determination 
to  make  the  scholar's  life  possible  for  him. 

If  we  may  believe  Luther's  own  words 
spoken  in  after  years,  the  years  of  study  in 
the  village  school  were  anything  but  pleas- 
ant. His  teachers  were  brutal  and  exacting, 
and  their  methods  crude  and  uninspiring. 
Beset  by  harsh  taskmasters  at  home  and  at 
school,  and  surrounded  by  the  superstition  of 
a  primitive  community,  little  wonder  that 
the  ripe  scholar  declared  that  the  schools  of 
his  boyhood  were  "hell  and  purgatory." 

When  Luther  left  the  home  of  his  parents 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  to  attend  school  at 
Magdeburg,  Eisenach,  and  the  University  of 
Erfurt  successively,  he  did  not  graduate  from 
Medieval  influence.  He  was  constantly  re- 
minded of  the  Church  at  these  places  by  the 
large  number  of  convents  and  monasteries 
that  surrounded  him.  At  the  old  and  fam- 
ous University  of  Erfurt,  where  he  enrolled 


12  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he  came  under  the 
influence  of  the  Occamist,  or  Nominalist, 
school  of  philosophy,  which  he  absorbed  so 
thoroughly  that,  in  spite  of  his  repudiation  of 
its  theology,  he  never  entirely  shook  it  off. 
His  practical  and  logical  mind  was  not  at- 
tracted by  the  more  speculative  and  theoret- 
ical studies,  but  moved  rather  in  the  groove 
of  those  subjects  which  sharpen  the  intellect 
by  logical  analysis.  His  strong,  clear  intel- 
lect was  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with,  as  his 
opponents  who  entered  the  forensic  lists  with 
him  were  some  day  to  learn. 

It  was  Luther's  intention  while  a  student 
at  the  university  to  gratify  the  wish  of  his 
father  by  entering  the  legal  profession;  and 
for  a  few  months  after  he  had  completed  his 
work  for  the  degrees  of  bachelor  of  arts  and 
of  master  he  studied  law.  The  measure  of 
his  success  as  a  jurist  can  only  be  conjec- 
tured, for  his  aptitude  for  theology  and  his 
religious  nature  shunted  him  into  another 
sphere.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  de- 
cided to  become  an  Augustinian  monk. 

Of  all  the  institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages 
none  is  more  characteristic  than  the  monastic 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  13 

system.  The  very  fact  that  Luther  entered 
a  monastery  against  the  wishes  of  his  father, 
whatever  the  circumstances  may  have  been, 
shows  the  cast  of  his  mind.  With  the  pros- 
pect of  a  career  along  juristic  Hnes  and  the 
constant  encouragement  of  his  father,  cer- 
tainly the  young  man  was  not  driven  to  the 
step  for  financial  reasons.  The  Medieval 
man  in  him  urged  him  to  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  saints.  We  may  be  certain  that 
the  young  student  chose  the  religious  life 
with  the  solemn  conviction  which  the  theo- 
logian terms  the  "inner  call."  Having  once 
made  up  his  mind  to  surrender,  he  did  so 
without  reservation.  With  the  true  spirit  of 
a  monk  he  performed  the  harsh,  menial  tasks 
assigned  to  him  without  a  murmur.  "If 
ever  a  monk  gained  heaven  by  his  monkery," 
he  said,  "  I  must  have  done  so." 

Although  he  confesses  that  he  got  little 
spiritual  consolation  out  of  his  three  years' 
stay  in  the  Erfurt  monastery,  it  was  not 
without  important  results:  his  studies  were 
not  neglected.  It  was  here  that  he  made  his 
acquaintance  with  the  Bible,  although  he 
had  scanned  some  of  its  pages  in  the  univer- 


14  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

sity  library.  Encouraged  in  the  study  of  the 
Sacred  Book  by  John  Staupitz,  the  vicar  of 
the  German  province  of  the  Augustinians,  it 
is  said  that  he  became  so  familiar  with  its 
contents  that  he  was  able  to  show  his  brother 
friars  the  exact  spot  where  every  quotation 
was  to  be  found.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted 
that  even  before  he  left  the  walls  of  the  mon- 
astery the  conviction  had  dawned  upon  him 
that  the  Scriptures  had  not  played  enough 
part  in  the  life  of  the  people.  Regarded  in 
the  light  of  his  later  veneration  of  the  Bible, 
it  must  have  been  the  only  ray  of  hope  in  the 
long  hours  when  he  wrestled  with  himself  and 
the  doubts  about  the  efficacy  of  the  monastic 
life  to  work  salvation.  It  has  been  said  that 
Luther  reformed  Germany  because  he  had  to 
reform  himself;  but  twelve  years  of  inward 
strife  and  varied  experience  dragged  along 
before  the  master-key  which  he  had  found  in 
the  monastery  opened  the  gates  of  peace. 

Luther's  ability  and  achievements  as  a 
scholar  gained  for  him  the  confidence  of  the 
vicar,  who  was  also  the  dean  of  the  faculty 
of  theology  at  the  newly  founded  University 
of   Wittenberg.     It   was   through   Staupitz 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  15 

that  in  the  autumn  of  1508  he  began  his  work 
as  a  teacher  in  that  university.  In  a  short 
time  he  made  a  place  for  himself  in  the  teach- 
ing profession.  Students  flocked  to  his  lec- 
tures. His  very  presence  was  inspiring.  The 
brilHant  deep-set  eyes,  ever  ready  to  smile  on 
a  friend  and  to  flash  fire  at  his  opponents, 
left  an  ineffable  impression  on  those  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact.  With  prophetic 
insight  one  of  his  colleagues  remarked  that 
this  monk  would  some  day  overthrow  the 
teaching  at  all  the  universities. 

The  succeeding  ten  years  of  Luther's  life 
present  him  in  the  combined  role  of  monk, 
priest,  scholar,  and  teacher;  and  his  career 
bears  all  the  earmarks  of  a  sane,  conserva- 
tive, earnest  young  man,  with  a  thirst  for 
knowledge  and  a  desire  to  get  right  with  the 
world.  In  fact,  as  Professor  Harnack  says, 
"in  Luther's  development  down  to  the  year 
1517,  there  was  an  entire  absence  of  all  dra- 
matic and  romantic  elements."  He  shows 
himself  to  have  been  a  man  of  poise  and  de- 
liberation, who  regarded  with  much  thought 
the  consequences  of  his  successive  steps. 

In  the  autumn  of  1511,  after  his  return 


16  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

from  the  Erfurt  monastery,  where  he  had 
been  teaching  for  a  time,  he  was  commis- 
sioned by  the  vicar  to  make  a  journey  to 
Rome  in  the  interest  of  his  order.  Return- 
ing to  Wittenberg  the  following  year  to  re- 
sume his  duties  as  teacher,  he  was  in  October 
given  the  doctorate  of  philosophy  by  the  uni- 
versity. In  addition  to  his  other  activities 
in  1515  he  burdened  himself  still  further  by 
shouldering  the  duties  attendant  upon  the 
office  of  district  vicar  of  the  Augustinian  or- 
der, a  field  which  greatly  widened  the  scope 
of  his  influence,  added  a  vast  amount  of 
practical  experience,  and  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men. 
His  frequent  absence  from  the  university  on 
administrative  business  was  a  healthy  cor- 
rective to  his  academic  life ;  while  growing  in 
mental  stature,  he  increased  in  wisdom. 

Several  years  before  he  fastened  his  ninety- 
five  theses  upon  the  church  door  at  Witten- 
berg the  cardinal  doctrine  of  Luther's  theol- 
ogy began  to  take  form:  the  seed  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith  was  in  his  heart,  but  as  late  as 
the  time  of  his  journey  to  Rome  it  had  not 
begun  to  germinate.     When  he  visited  that 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  17 

hotbed  of  iniquity  he  was  a  true  son  of 
Rome.  At  the  sight  of  the  city  he  pros- 
trated himself  and  cried:  "Hail,  holy  Rome!" 
In  the  spirit  of  the  Medieval  pilgrim  he  vis- 
ited the  shrines  and  sought  to  draw  on  the 
heavenly  treasury  for  the  forgiveness  of  his 
sins.  But  he  returned  to  Wittenberg  a  dis- 
illusioned man,  although  his  faith  in  the 
Church  was  not  shaken.  "I  was  a  foolish 
pilgrim,"  he  says,  "and  believed  all  I  was 
told."  The  fact  that  Luther  for  the  next 
six  years  lived  an  active  life  without  having 
his  conduct  questioned,  gaining  the  con- 
fidence of  his  associates  and  that  of  the  Saxon 
government,  speaks  volumes  for  his  self-re- 
straint and  conservatism.  For  he  was  pass- 
ing through  a  terrible  personal  crisis,  a  strug- 
gle which  might  well  have  caused  the  very 
stones  of  Wittenberg  to  cry  out.  But  he 
kept  his  experiences  to  himself,  and  it  was 
not  until  self-respect  allowed  him  to  be  silent 
no  longer  that  he  publicly  declared  the  solu- 
tion of  the  awful  problem  of  human  sinful- 
ness. 

Luther  was  not  an  abstract  theologian. 
He  was  an  eminently  practical  scholar,  who 


18  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

studied  the  Church  fathers  and  the  Bible 
with  a  practical  purpose.  Finding  little  or 
no  relief  for  his  restless  soul  in  the  mechanics 
of  salvation  furnished  by  the  Church,  he 
read  and  pondered  with  his  mind  fixed  on  sin 
and  redemption.  He  re-discovered  the  old 
faith  of  Paul  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
faith  that  the  Church  confessed  daily  but 
failed  to  comprehend. 

The  keynote  of  Paul's  Gospel,  and  indeed 
of  the  whole  New  Testament,  is  that  all  ex- 
ternal observance  of  the  law  is  worthless  un- 
less it  is  based  upon  the  obedience  of  the 
heart.  The  law  is  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  a 
man  unto  Christ,  that  he  might  be  justified. 
Salvation  comes  by  faith,  which  is  a  gift  of 
God,  and  not  by  works.  It  is  God  which 
imparts  freely  and  without  price  the  will  and 
the  strength  to  do  his  good  pleasure.  No 
man  is  justified  by  the  law  in  the  sight  of 
God:  for  the  just  live  by  faith.  Paul  found 
the  explanation  of  sin  within  him  in  his 
fleshly  nature.  "For  the  good  which  I  would 
I  do  not:  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not, 
that  I  practise.  But  if  what  I  would  not, 
that  I  do,  it  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  19 

which  dwelleth  in  me.  I  find  then  the  law 
that,  to  me  who  would  do  good,  evil  is  pres- 
ent. For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after 
the  inward  man :  but  I  see  a  different  law  in 
my  members,  warring  against  the  law  of  my 
mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  under 
the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members." 
Now,  since  there  is  no  way  for  the  nature  of 
man  of  itself  to  overcome  evil,  how  is  Christ 
to  effect  deliverance?  The  Apostle's  answer 
is  that  through  faith  whereby  a  man  identi- 
fies himself  with  Christ,  he  becomes  a  new 
creature,  so  that  it  is  no  longer  he  that  lives, 
but  Christ  that  lives  in  him.  Or,  as  Luther 
explained  it  in  one  of  his  treatises,  "  'Good 
works  do  not  make  a  good  man,  but  a  good 
man  does  good  works;  evil  works  do  not 
make  a  wicked  man,  but  a  wicked  man  does 
evil  works' ;  so  that  it  is  always  necessary 
that  the  'substance'  or  person  itself  be  good 
before  there  can  be  any  good  works,  and 
that  good  works  follow  and  proceed  from  the 
good  person,  as  Christ  also  says,  'A  corrupt 
tree  does  not  bring  forth  good  fruit,  a  good 
tree  does  not  bring  forth  evil  fruit. "... 
Illustrations  of  the  same  truth  can  be  seen  in 


20  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

all  trades.  A  good  or  bad  house  does  not 
make  a  good  or  bad  builder,  but  a  good  or 
bad  builder  makes  a  bad  or  good  house." 

Next  to  the  Bible  Luther  read  the  writings 
of  Augustine  and  John  Tauler.  Tauler  was 
a  mystic  who  dwelt  on  the  grace  of  God, 
while  Augustine  was  accepted  by  the  Church 
as  the  greatest  of  all  Church  writers.  The 
effect  of  Augustine's  theology  was  to  em- 
phasize the  evil  side  of  man's  nature  and  the 
impossibility  of  human  effort  to  overcome  it. 
He  accepts  substantially  the  Pauline  solu- 
tion of  the  problem,  that  through  faith  man 
receives  the  grace  of  God,  entirely  apart  from 
works.  The  Church  recognized  both  the 
grace  of  God  and  the  will  of  man  as  a  means 
of  salvation,  but  it  did  not  assert  which  of 
the  two  was  of  greater  importance. 

As  a  result  of  his  study  of  the  Bible  and 
Augustine  and  his  observations  as  a  monk 
and  priest,  it  gradually  dawned  on  Luther 
that  the  Church  had  obscured  the  way  of  sal- 
vation by  building  up  a  great  engine  of  salva- 
tion, which  was  a  dangerous  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  unscrupulous  and  corrupt  men. 
Luther's  great  contribution  to  the  welfare  of 


FORMATIVE  YEARS  21 

man  was  in  his  absolute  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  and  by  faith  alone.  But  he 
would  have  resented  with  great  indignation 
the  assertion  that  he  had  invented  a  new 
means  of  salvation;  quite  the  contrary,  he 
claimed  that  he  was  merely  bringing  back 
the  primitive  teaching  of  the  Church  based 
on  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul.  It  is  apparent 
that  Luther  was  no  propagandist.  He  lays 
no  claim  to  originality,  but  he  does  maintain 
that  he  is  restoring  Christianity  to  its  original 
state  after  it  had  been  led  astray  by  the 
Romanists. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Catholic  Reformer 

How  soon  Luther  would  have  announced 
to  Europe  his  new  faith  had  not  the  preach- 
ing of  John  Tetzel,  a  Dominican  friar,  driven 
him  to  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  tell. 
Even  then  it  "was  only  after  much  hesita- 
tion and  deep  distress  of  mind  that  he  felt 
compelled  to  interfere."  His  protest  against 
what  was  a  recognized  scandal  was  mild  and 
conciliatory,  and  not  the  spectacular  appeal 
of  a  man  who  was  nursing  a  personal  griev- 
ance or  possessed  of  an  itch  for  notoriety. 
Throughout  his  entire  campaign  against  the 
abuses  and  errors  of  the  Middle  Ages  he 
singled  out  the  doctrines  and  practices  which 
sink  down  to  the  level  of  the  common  people 
and  did  not  waste  ammunition  on  the  fine- 
spun theories  of  theologians,  which  the  com- 
mon man  neither  cared  to  understand  nor 
could  understand.  Luther's  heart  beat  for 
humanity,  and  he  instinctively  enlisted  in  its 

22 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  23 

behalf  when  he  deemed  the  hour  for  action 
had  struck.  But  Luther  was  not  the  type  of 
"reformer"  who  conjures  up  grievances  in 
order  to  give  vent  to  his  wrath.  He  was 
constructive  and  conservative.  There  was 
violence  in  his  writings  and  speeches,  but 
that  was  because  his  temperate  utterances 
met  with  violence.  His  fighting  spirit  once 
aroused,  he  was  liable  to  go  too  far  and  pur- 
sue his  opponents  with  spiteful  and  coarse 
invective. 

The  turning-point  in  Luther's  life  came  in 
his  thirty-fourth  year;  up  to  that  time  his 
development  was  gradual  and  rational.  The 
event  which  brought  Luther  out  was  the 
preaching  of  indulgences  by  John  Tetzel, 
whose  name  would  most  probably  have  been 
lost  to  posterity  but  for  the  fame  of  his  op- 
ponent. 

Indulgences  had  come  to  be  a  part  of  the 
sacramental  system  of  the  Church.  The 
sacrament  of  penance  involved  several  steps. 
The  penitent  man  must  be  genuinely  sorry 
for  his  sins  as  a  condition  preliminary  to  his 
confession  before  the  priest,  who  as  a  minis- 
ter of  Jesus  Christ  is  clothed  with  the  au- 


24  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

thority  of  the  Church  to  absolve  him  from 
his  sins.  As  evidence  of  a  contrite  spirit  the 
penitent  man  ought  to  perform  some  peni- 
tential act,  as,  for  instance,  a  kindly  deed  or 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  a  saint.  Essen- 
tially the  man  makes  a  sacrifice.  If  at  the 
death  of  a  man  the  measure  of  his  sacrifice 
is  not  full,  his  soul  cannot  enter  into  the 
heavenly  reward,  but  passes  into  an  inter- 
mediate state,  where  it  must  undergo  a  proc- 
ess of  purification.  The  soul  remains  in 
purgatory  until  the  unsatisfied  sins  have  met 
their  proper  punishment.  According  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  however,  the  Church 
could  remit  the  temporal  punishment  by 
drawing  upon  the  "heavenly  treasury"  con- 
sisting of  the  merits  of  Christ  and  the  saints. 
This  doctrine,  so  far  as  it  affected  the  living, 
became  a  part  of  canon  law  about  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  popes  on 
their  own  authority  had  extended  the  doc- 
trine to  the  souls  in  purgatory.  In  the 
meantime  the  practice  had  grown  up  of  sub- 
stituting a  money  payment  in  lieu  of  the  per- 
formance of  an  act  of  charity  or  of  a  pilgrim- 
age on  the  part  of  a  penitent  person.     In 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  25 

Other  words,  he  is  granted  an  indulgence. 
The  purchase  of  an  indulgence  costs  him 
something,  just  as  almsgiving  entails  a  pe- 
cuniary sacrifice.  The  interpreters  of  canon 
law  were  specific  on  the  point  that  an  indul- 
gence was  merely  a  remission  of  the  temporal 
punishment  due  to  sin,  but  not  of  the  actual 
guilt  of  sin.  It  never  became  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church  that  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
accompanies  the  purchase  of  an  indulgence. 
Moreover,  indulgences  were  applicable  to 
•the  remission  of  temporal  punishment  in  pur- 
gatory, which  appealed  strongly  to  the  in- 
stinct of  those  whose  dear  ones  had  passed 
away  to  avail  themselves  of  the  privilege  to 
effect  their  release  from  their  pains. 

Whatever  may  be  said  for  the  "theory"  of 
indulgences,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they 
opened  the  doors  for  misrepresentation  and 
corruption.  In  the  hands  of  unscrupulous 
preachers  they  were  a  great  danger  to  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  way  of  salvation:  it 
was  so  easy  to  place  the  emphasis  on  the 
wrong  step.  It  is  also  a  well-established 
fact  that  the  uneducated  and  unregenerate 
man,  deliberately  or  unconsciously,  turned 


26  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

them  to  uses  entirely  contrary  to  their  ori- 
ginal purpose. 

The  indulgence  which  brought  Tetzel  in 
proximity  to  Martin  Luther's  parish  was 
proclaimed  by  Pope  Leo  X  in  order  to  get 
money  for  the  building  of  the  new  Church  of 
St.  Peter.  The  circumstances  of  the  affair 
were  scandalous.  There  never  was  a  more 
bare-faced  money-making  scheme.  In  the 
words  of  a  scholarly  Catholic  historian,  "it 
was  a  transaction  which  certainly  was  un- 
worthy of  so  sacred  a  cause  as  that  of  an 
Indulgence." 

The  circumstances  were  as  follows:  The 
pope  had  entrusted  the  proclamation  of  the 
indulgence  in  the  dioceses  of  Mayence  and 
Magdeburg  to  Archbishop  Albert  of  Brand- 
enburg, a  prince  of  the  house  of  Hohenzol- 
lern.  This  ambitious  and  worldly-minded 
man  had  succeeded  in  having  himself  chosen 
to  three  of  the  most  important  Church  of- 
fices in  the  empire,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  a  plurality  of  benefices  was  in  violation 
of  canon  law  and  that  the  youth  of  the  prince 
forbade  him  to  hold  even  one  of  these  posi- 
tions.    In  order  to  secure  the  confirmation 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  27 

of  the  pope  to  these  offices,  he  was  compelled 
to  make  a  very  heavy  payment  to  the  Roman 
court,  a  sum  which  he  borrowed  from  the 
banking  house  of  the  Fuggers  in  Augsburg. 
When  the  pope  declared  the  indulgence  for 
the  benefit  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  he  made 
over  to  the  archbishop  one-half  of  the  total 
proceeds  of  the  indulgence  in  his  dioceses, 
with  which  he  could  liquidate  his  debt  to  the 
Fuggers. 

The  methods  employed  in  the  sale  of  the 
indulgences  may  be  explained  in  the  words 
of  a  Jesuit  historian,  Hartmann  Grisar: 
"Luther  learned  many  discreditable  particu- 
lars concerning  the  arrangement  arrived  at 
between  Rome  and  Mayence  for  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Indulgence  and  the  use  to  which 
half  of  the  spoils  was  to  be  applied.  What 
provoked  Luther  and  many  others  was  not 
only  the  abuses  which  prevailed  in  the  use  of 
Indulgences,  about  which  there  was  much 
grumbling,  and  the  constantly  recurring  col- 
lections which  were  a  burden,  both  to  the 
rulers  and  their  people,  but  also  the  tales 
current  regarding  the  behavior  of  the  monk 
acting  as  Indulgence-preacher.     Tetzel  did 


28  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

not  exactly  shine  as  an  example  of  virtue,  al- 
though the  charges  against  his  earlier  life  are 
as  baseless  as  the  reproach  of  gross  ignorance. 
He  was,  as  impartial  historians  have  estab- 
lished, forward  and  audacious  and  given  to 
exaggeration.  In  his  sermons,  mainly  owing 
to  his  popular  style  of  address,  he  erred  by 
using  expressions  only  to  be  styled  as 
strained  and  ill-considered.  He  even  em- 
ployed phrases  of  a  repulsive  nature  in  his 
attempts  to  extol  the  power  of  the  Indul- 
gence preached  by  him.  In  addition  to  this, 
in  explaining  how  the  Indulgence  might  be 
applied  to  the  departed,  he  made  his  own  the 
wrong,  exaggerated  and  quite  unauthorized 
opinions  of  certain  isolated  theologians,  put- 
ting them  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  real 
teaching  of  the  Church.  Such  private  opin- 
ions, it  is  true,  had  also  found  their  way  into 
some  of  the  official  instructions  on  Indul- 
gences. At  any  rate,  Tetzel,  with  misplaced 
zeal,  mingled  what  was  true  with  what  was 
false  or  uncertain.  The  great  concourse  of 
people  who  gathered  to  hear  the  celebrated 
preacher  also  led  to  many  disorders,  more 
particularly  when,  as  was  the  case  at  Anna- 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  29 

berg,  the  occasion  of  the  yearly  fair  was 
turned  to  account  in  order  to  publish  the 
Indulgence." 

Although  the  elector  of  Saxony  cherished 
no  heretical  opinions  on  the  subject  of  indul- 
gences, he  refused  to  allow  Tetzel  and  his 
followers  to  invade  his  dominions  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  money  to  pay  the  debts  of  the 
archbishop.  He  could  not  forbid  his  sub- 
jects, however,  from  journeying  to  Jiiterbog, 
a  small  town  across  the  border,  not  far  from 
Wittenberg,  in  order  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  opportunity  to  purchase  indulgences 
when  Tetzel,  in  the  spring  of  1517,  appeared 
there.  Although  Luther,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  not  ignorant  of  the  character  of  Tetzel's 
campaign,  he  refrained  from  attacking  him 
until  the  consequences  affected  him  directly 
as  a  Christian  priest  entrusted  with  the  care 
of  souls.  Luther  as  a  preacher  minced  no 
words  in  condemning  the  sins  of  individuals 
and  the  wickedness  of  his  community;  and 
when  he  was  confronted  with  worldly  mem- 
bers of  his  parish  in  the  possession  of  Tetzel's 
indulgences,  his  sense  of  decency  was  aroused. 
He  felt  bound  to  accept  the  challenge.     The 


30  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

remarkable  thing  is  that  his  fiery  nature  was 
held  in  restraint  so  long,  A  less  cautious 
and  conservative  man  would  have  rebelled 
at  once;  while  a  man  afraid  to  jeopardize 
his  future  would  have  shrunk  from  any  ac- 
tion. On  the  thirty- first  of  October,  1517, 
he  spoke  to  the  whole  world,  although  his  in- 
tentions were  far  more  modest.  Instead  of 
thundering  from  the  house-tops,  he  invited 
theologians  to  discuss  with  him  ninety-five 
propositions,  which  he  formulated  in  the 
Latin  language. 

Although  a  number  of  the  theses  do  strike 
at  the  root  of  papal  practices,  the  protest  was 
couched  in  conciliatory  language,  and  there 
were  other  theses  designed  to  conciliate  the 
pope.  While  it  is  unquestionably  true  that 
the  document  as  a  whole  has  an  evangelical 
tone  and  is  a  protest  against  a  mathematical 
reckoning  of  things  spiritual,  it  is  highly 
significant  that  the  word  faith  does  not 
appear,  and  that  there  is  no  appeal  to  the 
authority  of  Scripture.  In  other  words,  the 
theses,  rather  than  enunciating  a  new  doc- 
trine, protest  against  putting  the  old  doc- 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  31 

trines  in  a  false  light,  as  was  done  by  Tetzel 
and  his  followers. 

Repentance,  says  Luther,  is  the  natural 
attitude  of  a  Christian  man  throughout  his 
whole  life.  Inward  repentance,  however, 
shows  itself  outwardly  in  divers  mortifica- 
tions of  the  flesh ;  that  is,  if  there  is  true  re- 
pentance, it  will  reveal  itself.  Moreover, 
true  contrition  seeks  and  loves  penalties, 
rather  than  liberal  pardons  which  relax  pen- 
alties and  cause  them  to  be  hated.  Chris- 
tians are  to  be  taught  that  the  buying  of 
pardons  is  not  to  be  compared  in  any  way  to 
works  of  mercy;  that  he  who  gives  to  the 
poor  or  lends  to  the  needy  does  a  better  work 
than  buying  pardons;  that  love  grows  by 
works  of  love;  that  he  who  sees  a  man  in 
need,  and  passes  him  by,  and  gives  his  money 
for  pardons,  purchases  the  indignation  of 
God;  that  the  pope's  pardons  are  useful,  if 
they  do  not  put  their  trust  in  them. 

Luther  does  not  expressly  deny  the  doc- 
trine of  purgatory,  but  he  would  greatly  re- 
strict the  power  of  the  pope  over  souls  in 
purgatory.  Preachers  of  indulgences  are  in 
error  who  say  that  by  the  pope's  indulgences 


32  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

a  man  is  freed  from  every  penalty  of  sin,  be- 
cause if  it  is  at  all  possible  to  grant  to  any 
one  the  remission  of  all  penalties,  it  is  certain 
that  this  remission  can  be  granted  only  to 
the  most  perfect,  that  is,  to  the  very  fewest. 
Therefore,  the  pope  can  remit  only  those 
penalties  in  purgatory  which  have  been  im- 
posed by  himself.  Who  knows,  asks  Luther, 
whether  all  the  souls  in  purgatory  wish  to  be 
bought  out  of  it?  Alluding  to  the  exag- 
gerated statements  of  Tetzel,  the  assertion 
that,  so  soon  as  the  penny  jingles  into  the 
money-box,  the  soul  flies  out  of  purgatory,  is 
condemned  as  unwarranted  by  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  certain 
that  when  the  penny  jingles  into  the  money- 
box, gain  and  avarice  can  be  increased. 
Every  true  Christian,  whether  living  or  dead, 
has  part  in  all  the  blessings  of  Christ  and  the 
Church;  and  this  is  granted  him  by  God, 
even  without  letters  of  pardon,  although 
these  are  not  to  be  despised. 

If  indulgences  were  preached  according  to 
the  true  spirit  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
the  position  of  the  pope  would  not  be  com- 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  S3 

promised  nor  would  the  laity  propound  such 
embarrassing  questions  as  the  following: 

"Why  does  not  the  pope  empty  purgatory, 
for  the  sake  of  holy  love  and  of  the  dire  need 
of  souls  that  are  there,  if  he  redeems  an  in- 
finite number  of  souls  for  the  sake  of  miser- 
able money  with  which  to  build  a  Church?" 

"Why  does  not  the  pope,  whose  wealth  is 
to-day  greater  than  the  riches  of  the  richest, 
build  just  this  one  Church  of  St.  Peter  with 
his  own  money,  rather  than  with  the  money 
of  poor  believers?" 

"What  greater  blessing  could  come  to  the 
Church  than  if  the  pope  were  to  do  a  hundred 
times  a  day  what  he  now  does  once,  and  be- 
stow on  every  believer  these  remissions  and 
participations?" 

"Since  the  pope,  by  his  pardons,  seeks  the 
salvation  of  souls  rather  than  money,  why 
does  he  suspend  the  indulgences  and  pardons 
granted  heretofore,  since  these  have  equal 
efficacy?" 

The  ninetieth  thesis  is  prophetic  in  view  of 
the  reception  accorded  the  theses  and  the 
treatment  of  their  author  by  the  officials  of 
the  Church.     "To  repress  these  arguments 


34  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  scruples  of  the  laity  by  force  alone,  and 
not  to  resolve  them  by  giving  reasons,  is  to 
expose  the  Church  and  the  pope  to  the  ridi- 
cule of  their  enemies,  and  to  make  Christians 
unhappy." 

Taking  the  theses  in  the  large,  there  can  be 
no  other  conclusion  than  that  Luther  was 
fully  conscious  that  he  was  inviting  the  anger 
of  a  powerful  and  influential  element  in  the 
Church,  for  he  was  threatening  to  dry  up  a 
very  fruitful  source  of  revenue  which  flowed 
into  the  coffers  of  the  Church.  But  even 
had  he  desired  it,  it  is  scarcely  conceivable 
that  he  or  any  one  else  could  have  antici- 
pated their  tremendously  far-reaching  conse- 
quences, awakening  as  they  did  the  latent 
consciences  of  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor, 
learned  and  unlearned.  His  method  was  to 
enter  a  modest  dissent,  calling  on  the  en- 
lightened opinion  of  the  age  to  rally  to  the 
defence  of  truth  and  decency.  In  spite  of 
the  audience  to  which  they  were  addressed, 
the  moral  earnestness  of  the  popular  preacher 
of  righteousness  crops  out. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  account  for  Luth- 
er's regret  at  the  rapid  spread  of  his  theses 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  35 

if  he  had  not  declared  that  he  was  not  clear 
in  his  own  mind  on  certain  points  raised  in 
them.  Not  only  that,  but  he  repeatedly  in- 
sists that  he  is  a  loyal  son  of  the  Church  and 
of  its  head,  the  pope.  He  is  attempting  to 
clear  up  a  principle  which  he  believes  is  a 
part  of  true  Catholic  doctrine.  If  he  can 
prove  that  that  principle  has  been  perverted 
to  the  detriment  of  mankind,  he  shall  insist 
on  a  return  to  its  purity.  In  a  letter  to  the 
elector  of  Saxony  he  agrees  to  stop  writing 
and  promises  to  confess  humbly  to  the  pope 
that  he  has  been  too  vehement  and  that  he 
did  not  intend  to  injure  the  Church.  He  will 
go  even  further:  he  promises  to  issue  a  pam- 
phlet exhorting  the  people  to  cleave  to  the 
Roman  Church  and  to  be  obedient  and  re- 
spectful. To  Pope  Leo,  a  few  weeks  later, 
he  writes  that  he  would  not  hesitate  a  mo- 
ment to  withdraw  his  theses,  if  by  so  doing 
he  could  accomplish  the  end  desired.  "  But," 
says  he,  "my  writings  have  become  far  too 
widely  known,  and  taken  root  in  too  many 
hearts — beyond  my  highest  expectations — 
now  to  be  withdrawn  summarily.  Nay,  our 
German  nation,  with  its  cultured  and  learned 


36  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

men,  in  the  bloom  of  an  intellectual  re-awak- 
ening, understands  this  question  so  thor- 
oughly that,  on  this  account,  I  must  avoid 
even  the  appearance  of  a  recantation,  much 
as  I  honor  and  esteem  the  Roman  Church  in 
other  respects.  For  such  a  recantation 
would  only  bring  it  into  still  worse  repute, 
and  make  every  one  speak  against  it.  .  .  . 
I  also  gladly  promise  to  let  the  question  of 
indulgences  drop  and  be  silent,  if  my  oppo- 
nents restrain  their  boastful,  empty  talk." 
In  a  letter  to  his  friend  Scheurl  he  rather  re- 
grets the  spread  of  the  theses,  not  that  he  is 
unwilling  to  proclaim  the  truth,  "but  be- 
cause this  way  of  instructing  the  people  is  of 
little  avail."  Had  he  foreseen  all  this  he 
would  have  left  out  some  points  and  gone 
into  others  more  particularly. 

Not  even  during  the  Leipsic  disputation 
did  Luther,  in  spite  of  his  humiliating  treat- 
ment by  Eck,  who  insisted  upon  uncondi- 
tional recantation,  threaten  to  withdraw 
from  the  old  Church.  He  declared  he  would 
enter  the  debate  "with  reservation  of  full 
submission  and  obedience  to  the  Holy  See." 
It  was  only  when  his  distinguished  oppo- 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  37 

nents  gave  full  vent  to  their  wrath,  and  he 
saw  that  there  could  be  no  reconciliation, 
that  he  declared  that  henceforth  he  must 
proceed  in  earnest  "against  the  Roman  pon- 
tiff and  Romish  pride."  Certainly  in  the 
early  years  of  the  controversy  Luther's  words 
and  attitude  are  not  those  of  a  man  nursing 
a  personal  grievance  and  vaunting  ambition. 
He  stands  for  reform,  but  reform  effected 
through  calm  and  mature  deliberation,  not 
by  revolution.  His  agitation  is  for  a  return 
to  the  original  constitution  of  the  Church, 
the  creed  of  the  fathers.  He  could  not  fore- 
see the  social  and  political  upheaval  that  was 
destined  to  follow.  His  desire  was  to  fore- 
stall any  such  calamity  by  removing  condi- 
tions which  might  occasion  an  event  of  such 
nature.  If  revision  must  come,  it  was  better 
to  revise  the  dogma  of  the  Church  by  its 
friends  than  by  its  enemies,  who  would  not 
approach  the  task  with  proper  reverence. 
Do  not  misunderstand  his  position.  It  was 
not  the  doctrines  themselves  that  Luther 
would  revise,  but  the  perverted  practise  of 
them.  As  he  later  said,  "We  contend 
against  and  reject  the  work  of  the  pope,  in 


38  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

not  abiding  by  those  blessings  which  the 
Christian  Church  has  inherited  from  the 
Apostles." 

It  certainly  is  not  to  the  discredit  of 
Luther  that  his  mind  wavered  at  times,  and 
that  he  changed  his  opinions.  His  oppo- 
nents unconsciously  excited  him  to  search 
history  for  proofs  of  his  assertions  and  to  dis- 
prove those  of  his  adversaries.  As  his  re- 
search progressed  it  became  clear  to  him  that 
Holy  Scripture  and  the  Nicene  Creed  were 
more  sacred  than  the  decrees  of  Roman  pon- 
tiffs. 

The  next  three  years  of  Luther's  life 
brought  him  face  to  face  with  problems  that 
would  have  made  the  stoutest  heart  quail. 
His  efforts  to  purify  the  Church  met  with  no 
sympathy  from  the  head  of  the  Church.  At 
first  the  pope  belittled  him,  but  Luther  could 
not  be  jested  out  of  his  faith.  The  imme- 
diate response  which  his  theses  awakened 
throughout  Germany  made  him  a  hero;  he 
understood  that  his  cause  was  the  people's 
cause.  This  fact,  together  with  the  delicate 
political  situation  in  Germany,  and  the  evi- 
dent determination  of  the  Elector  Frederic  of 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  39 

Saxony  to  protect  Luther,  warned  the  pope 
that  the  matter  would  have  to  be  handled 
gingerly.  The  action  summoning  Luther  to 
Rome  to  answer  for  his  heretical  opinions 
was  reconsidered.  Upon  the  advice  of  the 
papal  legate  in  Germany,  Cardinal  Cajetan, 
who  was  in  a  position  to  know  the  hold  the 
Wittenberg  professor  had  on  the  people, 
Luther  was  ordered  to  appear  before  that  of- 
ficial at  Augsburg.  Apparently  Cajetan 
wholly  misunderstood  the  character  of  the 
man  with  whom  he  was  dealing,  for  he  re- 
sorted to  browbeating  and  insisted  on  uncon- 
ditional recantation.  In  spite  of  this  treat- 
ment, after  the  termination  of  the  interview 
Luther  wrote  a  respectful  letter  to  the  cardi- 
nal, begging  pardon  for  ill-considered  words 
and  promising  to  maintain  silence,  provided 
the  same  rule  was  imposed  on  the  men  who 
had  led  him  into  "this  tragic  business."  He 
insisted  that  he  desired  to  remain  obedient  to 
the  Church,  but  feared  that  an  unconditional 
recantation  might  subject  him  to  the  re- 
proach of  not  knowing  either  what  he  as- 
serted or  what  he  withdrew. 

Upon    the   failure   of   Cajetan   to   break 


40  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Luther's  will,  the  pope  dispatched  a  special 
envoy  to  Germany  in  the  person  of  Charles 
von  Miltitz.  Again  Luther  promised  to 
make  what  amends  he  could,  agreeing  to  let 
the  matter  of  indulgences  drop,  provided  his 
opponents  refrained  from  attacking  him;  to 
write  a  humble  letter  to  the  pope;  and  to 
circulate  a  paper  admonishing  the  people 
to  follow  the  Roman  Church.  In  spite  of 
strong  provocation  to  the  contrary,  it  is 
plain  that  Luther  is  seeking  to  avoid  a  breach 
with  Rome. 

The  logic  of  events,  however,  decided 
otherwise.  The  break  came  about  by  the 
challenge  of  John  Eck,  a  professor  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Ingolstadt  in  Bavaria,  a  scholar 
and  celebrated  disputant.  Considering  him- 
self absolved  from  his  promise  of  silence  by 
the  attacks  of  Eck,  who  called  him  a  fanatic 
Hussite,  seditious,  insolent,  and  rash,  he  ac- 
cepted his  invitation  to  a  debate  at  Leipsic, 
to  be  held  in  the  early  summer  of  1519.  The 
debate,  as  is  frequently  the  case,  led  the  dis- 
putants into  a  variety  of  subjects.  Luther, 
as  we  have  seen,  came  to  Leipsic  without 
questioning  the  papal  supremacy,  expecting 


THE  CATHOLIC  REFORMER  41 

that  the  discussion  would  concern  itself  with 
doctrine;  but  his  opponent  manoeuvered 
him  into  a  position  where  he  had  to  commit 
himself  on  the  question  of  the  possession  of 
authority.  Luther  made  some  rather  strong 
statements  about  the  supremacy  of  the  pope. 
He  did  not  deny  the  Roman  pontiff  a  pre- 
cedence of  honor,  but  pointed  to  the  Greek 
Church  and  to  the  ancient  fathers  who  were 
not  under  his  sway.  He  admitted  that  there 
is  one  Church  and  one  head,  but  that  head  is 
Christ.  The  obvious  retort  was  that  this 
was  the  doctrine  of  John  Huss,  who  had  been 
condemned  as  a  heretic  by  the  Council  of 
Constance.  Luther  was  obliged  to  admit 
that  the  council  had  wrongly  condemned 
some  articles  taught  by  Paul,  Augustine,  and 
even  Christ  himself.  The  opportunity  was 
too  good  for  the  adroit  Eck  to  pass  over. 
With  all  the  rhetoric  at  his  command  he 
painted  Luther  a  heretic  of  the  deepest  die. 
When  Eck  forced  Luther  to  admit  pub- 
licly in  self-defense  that  he  was  a  Hussite,  he 
shifted  the  point  of  controversy,  and  made 
the  man  who  was  fighting  to  remain  within 
the  Church  in  order  to  carry  on  his  work  of 


42  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

renovation  withdraw  from  its  fold  to  seek 
protection  and  reform  elsewhere.  To  use  a 
Modern  political  phrase,  Luther  was  readout 
of  the  party.  Eck  in  common  with  Cajetan 
and  Miltitz  failed  to  convince  Luther  of  his 
errors;  he  did,  however,  open  his  eyes  still 
further  to  the  magnitude  of  the  obstacles 
which  one  by  one  were  rolled  in  the  path  of 
reform.  His  attacks  upon  the  Church  were 
step  by  step  forced  upon  him  by  his  oppo- 
nents. Up  to  this  time  Luther's  arguments 
had  been  largely  historical;  hereafter  they 
were  to  become  theological  also. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Break  with  Rome 

In  the  year  1520  Luther  crossed  the  Rubi- 
con: thereafter  there  could  be  no  turning 
back.  This  memorable  year  saw  the  pub- 
lication of  "An  Address  to  the  Christian 
Nobility  of  the  German  Nation,"  "The  Baby- 
lonian Captivity  of  the  Church,"  and  "A 
Treatise  on  Christian  Liberty"  and  the  burn- 
ing of  the  papal  bull.  The  great  reformer 
appears  to  have  made  up  his  mind  to  clear 
his  conscience.  The  violence  of  the  "Ad- 
dress" may  be  explained  by  the  necessity  of 
making  a  soul-stirring  appeal  to  the  people 
of  Germany,  in  whom  now  lay  his  only  hope. 

"The  time  to  keep  silence  has  passed  and 
the  time  to  speak  is  come,  as  saith  Eccle- 
siastes,"  writes  Luther.  "I  have  followed 
out  our  intention  and  brought  together  some 
matters  touching  the  reform  of  the  Christian 
Estate,  to  be  laid  before  the  Christian  Nobil- 
ity of  the  German  Nation,  in  the  hope  that 

43 


44  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

God  may  deign  to  help  his  Church  through 
the  efforts  of  the  laity,  since  the  clergy,  to 
whom  this  task  more  properly  belongs,  have 
grown  quite  indifferent." 

In  this,  the  most  important  document 
Luther  ever  wrote,  he  addresses  himself, 
neither  to  the  pope  nor  to  a  council,  but  to 
the  lay  princes  of  Germany.  It  is  significant 
that,  while  he  goes  over  the  heads  of  the 
Church  officials,  he  does  not  go  to  the  ex- 
treme of  appealing  to  the  common  people, 
but  to  the  powers  interested  in  the  main- 
tenance of  order.  Reform  must  come  from 
above.  There  is  no  effort  to  awaken  the 
mob  spirit.  He  would  make  use  of  the  estab- 
lished institutions  of  society — government, 
church,  and  school — rather  than  burn  them 
to  the  ground  in  order  to  rear  an  entirely  new 
system  on  the  ashes  of  the  old. 

In  his  characteristically  practical  way 
Luther  puts  his  finger  on  the  three  great  ob- 
stacles to  the  reform  of  the  Church. 

'*The  Romanists,  with  great  adroitness, 
have  built  three  walls  about  them,  behind 
which  they  have  hitherto  defended  them- 
selves in  such  wise  that  no  one  has  been  able 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  45 

to  reform  them ;  and  this  has  been  the  cause 
of  terrible  corruption  throughout  all  Christ- 
endom. 

"First,  when  pressed  by  the  temporal 
power,  they  have  made  decrees  and  said  that 
the  temporal  power  has  no  jurisdiction  over 
them,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  spirit- 
ual power  is  above  the  temporal  power.  Sec- 
ond, when  the  attempt  is  made  to  reprove 
them  out  of  the  Scriptures,  they  raise  the  ob- 
jection that  the  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures belongs  to  no  one  except  the  pope. 
Third,  if  threatened  with  a  council,  they  an- 
swer with  the  fable  that  no  one  can  call  a 
council  but  the  pope. 

"In  this  wise  they  have  slyly  stolen  from 
us  our  three  rods,  that  they  may  go  unpun- 
ished, and  even  have  ensconced  themselves 
within  the  safe  stronghold  of  these  three 
walls,  that  they  may  practise  all  the  knavery 
and  wickedness  which  we  now  see.  Even 
when  they  have  been  compelled  to  hold  a 
council  they  have  weakened  its  power  in  ad- 
vance by  previously  binding  the  princes  with 
an  oath  to  let  them  remain  as  they  are. 
Moreover,  they  have  given  the  pope  full  au- 


46  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

thority  over  the  decisions  of  the  council,  so 
that  it  is  all  one  whether  there  are  many 
councils  or  no  councils, — except  that  they 
deceive  us  with  puppet-shows  and  sham- 
battles.  So  terribly  do  they  fear  for  their 
skin  in  a  really  free  council!" 

In  opposition  to  the  first  contention,  that 
the  papacy  is  above  the  temporal  power, 
Luther  maintained  that  the  only  distinction 
between  the  clergy  and  the  laity  is  that  of 
function.  There  is  no  essential  difference 
between  Christians.  This  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  priesthood  of  the  common  man.  Ordina- 
tion means  that  the  assembly  representing 
the  Church  chooses  one  to  serve  the  congre- 
gation, die  Gemeine,  as  Luther's  Bible  trans- 
lates it.  To  make  his  meaning  still  clearer, 
Luther  cites  a  practical  example:  "  If  a  little 
group  of  pious  Christian  laymen  were  taken 
captive  and  set  down  in  a  wilderness,  and 
had  among  them  no  priest  consecrated  by  a 
bishop,  and  if  there  in  the  wilderness  they 
were  to  agree  in  choosing  one  of  themselves, 
married  or  unmarried,  and  were  to  charge 
him  with  the  office  of  baptizing,  saying  mass, 
absolving  and  preaching,  such  a  man  would 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  47 

be  as  truly  a  priest  as  though  all  the  bishops 
and  popes  had  consecrated  him." 

Regarding  the  second  claim,  that  only  the 
pope  can  interpret  Scripture,  Luther  denies 
the  right  of  an  ignorant  and  corrupt  pope  to 
interpret  the  Bible  to  the  detriment  of  intel- 
ligent and  pious  men.  This  is  an  appeal  to 
the  validity  of  Christian  scholarship. 

The  third  wall,  that  no  one  can  call  a  coun- 
cil but  the  pope,  will  fall  of  itself  when  the 
other  two  are  down.  Scripture  directs  us  to 
correct  an  erring  member.  Therefore,  when 
necessity  demands,  the  first  man  who  is  able 
should  use  his  influence  to  bring  about  a 
truly  free  council.  "Thus  we  read  in  Acts 
XV  that  it  was  not  St.  Peter  who  called  the 
Apostolic  Council,  but  the  Apostles  and  eld- 
ers. If,  then,  that  right  had  belonged  to  St. 
Peter  alone,  the  council  would  not  have 
been  a  Christian  council.  .  .  .  Even  the 
Council  of  Nicaea — the  most  famous  of  all — - 
was  neither  called  nor  confirmed  by  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  but  by  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine,  and  many  other  emperors  after  him 
did  the  like,  yet  these  councils  were  the  most 
Christian  of  all.     But  if  the  pope  alone  had 


48  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  right  to  call  councils,  then  all  these  coun- 
cils must  have  been  heretical." 

With  brutal  frankness  the  Address  deals 
with  a  vast  number  and  variety  of  problems, 
in  the  discussion  of  which  the  author  reveals  a 
wide  knowledge  of  history,  politics,  doctrine, 
and  contemporary  conditions.  Whether  cit- 
ing abuses  or  proposing  reform,  he  constantly 
invokes  the  authority  of  Scripture.  "  For  all 
its  scathing  quality,"  writes  a  Lutheran  theo- 
logian, "it  is  a  sane  arraignment  of  those 
who  '  under  the  holy  name  of  Christ  and  St. 
Peter'  are  responsible  for  the  nation's  woes, 
and  the  remedies  that  are  proposed  are, 
many  of  them,  practicable  as  well  as  reason- 
able." 

Having  demolished  the  outer  fortifica- 
tions, Luther  in  the  "Babylonian  Captivity 
of  the  Church"  enters  the  very  portals  of  the 
Roman  Church  in  order  to  release  mankind 
from  the  bondage  of  the  sacramental  system. 
Discussing  each  of  the  seven  sacraments,  he 
attempts  to  show  how  the  meaning  and  ad- 
ministration of  certain  sacraments  have  been 
perverted,  and  how  the  whole  system  has  as- 
sumed an  importance  wholly  unwarranted 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  49 

by  Scripture.  Totally  rejecting  confirma- 
tion, ordination,  marriage,  and  extreme  unc- 
tion from  the  list  of  sacraments,  he  accepts 
baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  penance. 
A  further  study  of  the  Bible  convinced 
Luther  that  he  erred  in  retaining  penance  be- 
cause it  had  not  been  expressly  instituted  by 
the  Lord. 

In  attacking  the  most  vital  spot  of  Cathol- 
icism the  "Babylonian  Captivity"  marked  a 
radical  doctrinal  departure;  but  Luther  was 
not  yet  ready  to  embrace  what  ultimately 
became  the  Lutheran  position  on  the  sacra- 
ments. He  was  heartily  in  favor  of  private 
confession,  even  though  it  could  not  be 
proved  from  Scripture.  Indulgences  he 
threw  overboard.  "Some  two  years  ago  I 
wrote  a  little  book  on  indulgences,  which  I 
now  deeply  regret  having  published;  for  at 
that  time  I  was  still  sunk  in  a  mighty  super- 
stitious veneration  for  the  Roman  tyranny 
and  held  that  indulgences  should  not  be  alto- 
gether rejected,  seeing  they  were  approved 
by  the  common  consent  of  men.  .  .  . 
Since  then,  however,  ...  I  have  come  to 
see  that  they  are  nothing  but  an  imposture  of 


50  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  Roman  sycophants  by  which  they  play 
havoc  with  men's  faith  and  fortunes.  Would 
to  God  I  might  prevail  upon  the  book-sellers 
and  upon  all  my  readers  to  burn  up  the  whole 
of  my  writings  on  indulgences  and  to  substi- 
tute for  them  this  proposition:  Indulgences 
are  a  knavish  trick  of  the  Roman  syco- 
phants." 

The  last  treatise  is  the  most  dignified  and 
calm  of  the  three.  "Nothing  that  Luther 
has  written,"  says  Doctor  Lindsay,  "more 
clearly  manifests  that  combination  of  revolu- 
tionary daring  and  wise  conservatism  which 
was  characteristic  of  the  man."  It  is  per- 
haps the  most  beautiful  work  Luther  ever 
wrote.  "A  truly  religious  spirit  breathes 
in  these  pages,"  writes  a  French  Catholic. 
"Provoking  polemic  is  almost  entirely 
avoided.  Here  one  finds  again  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  great  mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
.  .  .  He  is  not  a  true  Christian  who 
would  venture  to  disapprove  the  passages  in 
which  Luther  speaks  so  eloquently  of  the 
goodness  of  God,  of  the  gratitude  which  it 
should  inspire  in  us,  of  the  spontaneity  which 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  51 

should  mark  our  obedience,  of  the  desire  of 
imitating  Christ  which  should  inspire  us." 

With  a  charming  simpHcity — almost  para- 
doxical of  the  lofty  theme — he  writes  about 
the  Christian  faith,  which  he  sums  up  in  two 
propositions. 

"A  Christian  man  is  a  perfectly  free  lord 
of  all,  subject  to  none. 

"A  Christian  man  is  a  perfectly  dutiful 
servant  of  all,  subject  to  all." 

Laying  it  down  without  qualification  that 
a  man  is  justified  by  faith  alone,  he  makes  a 
plea  for  moderation  and  toleration  in  the 
attitude  toward  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of 
Rome.  Such  things  are  permissible,  pro- 
vided they  do  not  obscure  their  purpose — to 
bring  man  into  closer  relation  to  God.  "Our 
faith  in  Christ  does  not  free  us  from  works, 
but  from  false  opinions  concerning  works, 
that  is,  from  the  foolish  presumption  that 
justification  is  acquired  by  works.  For 
faith  redeems,  corrects  and  preserves  our 
consciences,  so  that  we  know  that  righteous- 
ness does  not  consist  in  works,  although 
works  neither  can  nor  ought  to  be  wanting; 
first  as  we  cannot  do  without  food  and  drink 


52  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  all  the  works  of  this  mortal  body,  yet 
our  righteousness  is  not  in  them,  but  in  faith; 
and  yet  those  works  of  the  body  are  not  to  be 
despised  or  neglected  on  that  account.     .     . 

"Hence,  the  Christian  must  take  a  middle 
course  and  face  those  two  classes  of  men. 
He  will  meet  first  the  unyielding,  stubborn 
ceremonialists,  who  like  deaf  adders  are  not 
willing  to  hear  the  truth  of  liberty,  but,  hav- 
ing no  faith,  boast  of,  prescribe,  and  insist 
upon  their  ceremonies  as  means  of  justifica- 
tion. .  .  .  These  he  must  resist,  do  the 
very  opposite  and  offend  them  boldly,  lest 
by  their  impious  views  they  drag  many  with 
them  into  error.  In  the  presence  of  these 
men  it  is  good  to  eat  meat,  to  break  the  fasts 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  liberty  of  faith  to  do 
other  things  which  they  regard  the  greatest 
of  sins.  .  .  .  The  other  class  of  men 
whom  a  Christian  will  meet,  are  the  simple- 
minded,  ignorant  men,  weak  in  faith,  as  the 
Apostle  calls  them,  who  cannot  yet  grasp  the 
liberty  of  faith,  even  if  they  were  willing  to 
do  so.  These  he  must  take  care  not  to  of- 
fend; he  must  yield  to  their  weakness  until 
they  are  more  fully  instructed.     For  since 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  53 

these  do  and  think  as  they  do,  not  because 
they  are  stubbornly  wicked,  but  only  because 
their  faith  is  weak,  the  fasts  and  other  things 
which  they  think  necessary  must  be  observed 
to  avoid  giving  them  offence.  For  so  love 
demands,  which  would  harm  no  one,  but 
would  serve  all  men.  It  is  not  their  fault 
that  they  are  weak,  but  their  pastors  have 
taken  them  captive  with  the  snares  of  their 
traditions  and  have  wickedly  used  these  tra- 
ditions as  rods  with  which  to  beat  them.  .  . 
"In  brief,  as  wealth  is  the  test  of  poverty, 
business  the  test  of  faithfulness,  honors  the 
test  of  humility,  feasts  the  test  of  temper- 
ance, pleasures  the  test  of  chastity,  so  cere- 
monies are  the  test  of  the  righteousness  of 
faith.  'Can  a  man,'  says  Solomon,  'take 
fire  in  his  bosom,  and  his  clothes  not  be 
burned?'  .  .  .  Hence  ceremonies  are  to 
be  given  the  same  place  in  the  life  of  a  Chris- 
tian as  models  and  plans  have  among  build- 
ers and  artisans.  They  are  prepared  not  as 
permanent  structures,  but  because  without 
them  nothing  could  be  built  or  made.  When 
the  structure  is  completed  they  are  laid  aside. 
You  see,  they  are  not  despised,  rather,  they 


54  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

are  greatly  sought  after;  but  what  we  de- 
spise is  the  false  estimate  of  them,  since  no 
one  holds  them  to  be  the  real  and  permanent 
structure.  If  any  man  were  so  egregiously 
foolish  as  to  care  for  nothing  all  his  life  long 
except  the  most  costly,  careful  and  persistent 
preparation  of  plans  and  models,  and  never 
to  think  of  the  structure  itself,  and  were  sat- 
isfied with  his  work  in  producing  plans  and 
mere  aids  to  work,  and  boasted  of  it,  would 
not  all  men  pity  his  insanity,  and  estimate 
that  with  what  he  has  wasted  something 
great  might  have  been  built?" 

These  three  products  of  Luther's  pen  show 
strikingly  the  development  of  the  man's 
mind.  There  are  successive  stages.  At 
some  places  he  pauses  to  explain  that  he  has 
advanced  a  pace  in  his  view,  and  admits  his 
former  errors;  and  at  other  points  he  takes 
pains  to  explain  the  fact  that,  because  he  has 
turned  away  from  certain  teachings  of  the 
old  Church,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  whole 
must  be  rejected. 

Blind,  indeed,  the  papal  party  would  have 
been  if  it  had  not  perceived  that  the  Witten- 
berg professor  was  determined  to  stand  by 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  55 

the  principles  so  boldly  and  clearly  pro- 
claimed in  his  three  great  works.  Ridicule, 
abuse,  and  threats  proving  of  no  avail,  the 
pope  decided  to  employ  the  engine  of  excom- 
munication. On  the  fifteenth  of  June,  1520, 
the  papal  bull  was  published.  It  condemned 
forty-one  propositions  drawn  from  Luther's 
writings  as  "heretical  or  false,  scandalous, 
offensive  to  pious  ears,  insulting,  ensnaring 
and  contrary  to  Catholic  truth;"  forbade 
the  reading  of  his  books ;  threatened  with  the 
ban  everybody  who  should  support  or  pro- 
tect him;  prohibited  him  from  preaching; 
and  threatened  him  with  excommunication 
if  he  did  not  repent  and  recant  within  sixty 
days  after  the  publication  of  the  bull  in  Ger- 
many. Luther  was  now  in  a  position  where 
either  he  had  to  admit  that  he  was  a  false 
prophet  who  had  misled  thousands,  and 
abandon  those  who  at  great  personal  risk  had 
stood  by  him,  or  bid  defiance  to  his  enemies. 
He  remained  loyal  to  his  conscience. 

His  answer  was  unmistakable  and  dra- 
matic. In  order  to  announce  to  Europe  his 
contempt  for  papal  decrees,  in  the  presence 
of  a  large  concourse  of  people,  of  whom  a  con- 


56  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

siderable  number  were  Wittenberg  students, 
on  December  10th,  he  committed  to  the 
flames  the  papal  bull  and  the  whole  canon 
law.  The  fire  which  consumed  these  docu- 
ments severed  the  last  fibre  of  the  bonds  that 
had  united  Martin  Luther  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Henceforth  he  was  to  be  an  irrecon- 
cilable enemy  to  "Antichrist."  The  fearless 
German  was  free  to  go  about  his  constructive 
work,  to  erect  a  new  edifice  in  place  of  the  old 
one,  from  whose  portals  the  pope  had  ban- 
ished him.  But  although  he  has  turned  his 
back  upon  an  ancient  institution,  he  goes 
back  to  the  time  antedating  its  completion 
for  material  to  be  used  in  the  construction  of 
the  new  one.  Wherever  possible  he  models 
his  structure  upon  the  plans  of  the  architects 
which  designed  the  Medieval  Church;  but 
the  foundation  rests,  not  upon  the  rock  of  St. 
Peter,  but  upon  faith — faith  drawn  from 
Holy  Scripture.  Luther  set  about  to  restore 
the  Church  of  the  fathers.  Could  he  have 
done  so  with  the  aid  and  co-operation  of  the 
pope  and  bishops,  he  would  have  done  it; 
but  when   they  declined,   he   became  con- 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  57 

vinced  that  they  were  not  a  necessary  part 
of  the  Church. 

Luther's  life  shows  that  he  did  not  beHeve 
that  man  was  made  for  system,  but  system 
for  man.  If  a  certain  system  was  better  for 
the  spiritual  growth  of  one  man,  let  him 
abide  by  that  system.  His  whole  idea  was 
to  reform,  not  to  revolutionize.  It  is  quite 
probable  that  he  would  have  remained  a 
loyal  son  of  Rome  had  he  not  rebelled  at  the 
corruption  within  the  Church.  That  cor- 
ruption he  did  not  at  first  attribute  to  the 
system.  When  he  arrived  at  that  stage,  he 
broke  with  the  Church.  The  break  need  not 
have  come  had  not  the  organization  as  ad- 
ministered by  the  pope  and  his  advisers  of 
the  type  of  Eck  been  so  absolutely  inflexible. 

But  even  after  he  had  taken  this  momen- 
tous step  and  had  incurred  the  undying 
wrath  and  hostility  of  the  adherents  of  Rome 
he  did  not,  after  the  fashion  of  the  men  of  the 
French  Revolution,  sweep  away  all  vestiges 
of  the  past.  *'\Ve  are  not  ashamed  of  prais- 
ing whatever  good  we  find  in  the  papal 
churches,"  he  declares.  But  antiquity  of  it- 
self has  no  claim,  for  "then  the  devil  would 


58  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

be  the  most  righteous  person  on  earth,  since 
he  is  now  over  five  thousand  years  old." 
"If  what  has  been  in  use,  from  of  old,  is  to 
be  changed  or  abolished,  an  indubitable 
proof  must  be  given  that  it  is  contrary  to 
God's  Word.  Otherwise,  what  is  not  against 
us  is  for  us."  "It  is  dangerous  and  terrible 
to  hear  or  believe  anything  contrary  to  the 
unanimous  testimony,  faith,  and  doctrine  of 
the  entire  Holy  Christian  Church,  which,  for 
over  fifteen  hundred  years  now,  it  has  unan- 
imously held  throughout  all  the  world." 
Furthermore,  "I  believe  and  am  sure,  that, 
even  under  the  Papacy,  the  true  Church  re- 
mains." "But  we  contend  against  and  re- 
ject the  work  of  the  Pope,  in  not  abiding  by 
those  blessings  which  the  Christian  Church 
has  inherited  from  the  Apostles." 

Luther  was  a  leader,  not  a  voice;  he  was  a 
wind  which  shook  the  reed,  not  a  reed  shaken 
by  the  wind.  He  wanted  a  change,  but  he 
was  ardent  in  his  opposition  to  a  general 
wave  of  change.  He  was  equally  powerful 
in  promoting  and  resisting  change.  He  did 
not  plant  many  new  trees;  he  cleared  away 
the  underbrush  of  Medievalism.  Frequently 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  59 

violent  and  radical  in  attacking  corruption, 
he  proceeded  cautiously  in  altering  institu- 
tions. Sometimes  destructively  radical,  he 
was  always  constructively  conservative. 

The  next  stage  in  Luther's  career  brought 
him  to  the  city  of  Worms,  whither  he  was 
summoned  by  the  newly  elected  Emperor 
Charles  V  to  appear  before  the  imperial  diet. 
A  great  change  had  come  over  Europe  in  the 
hundred  years  intervening  since  the  appear- 
ance of  John  Huss  before  the  Council  of 
Constance.  It  was  a  most  extraordinary 
thing  that  Luther,  a  condemned  heretic,  was 
allowed  to  be  heard  before  the  most  august 
assembly  in  Europe.  When  he  set  out  for 
Worms  from  Wittenberg  on  the  second  of 
April,  1521,  it  was  with  the  solemn  convic- 
tion that  he  had  been  called  to  defend  the 
cause  of  God.  His  journey  of  twelve  days 
was  a  triumphal  procession.  It  is  a  tribute 
to  his  sturdy  character  and  the  dignity  of  his 
cause  that  the  plaudits  of  the  multitude  did 
not  turn  his  head.  Weighed  down  by  the 
awful  responsibility,  the  man  who  appeared 
before  the  emperor  was  meek  and  modest. 
The  young  emperor,  mistaking  humility  for 


60  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

weakness,  declared  that  Luther  would  never 
make  a  heretic  of  him. 

In  the  afternoon  of  April  17th  Luther  was 
admitted  to  the  hall.  On  a  table  in  front  of 
the  emperor  lay  a  pile  of  his  books.  The 
only  questions  he  was  asked  was  whether  he 
had  written  these  books  and  whether  he 
would  stand  by  them  or  recant.  After  the 
titles  had  been  read,  Luther,  in  a  low  voice, 
acknowledged  his  authorship.  In  the  reply 
to  the  second  question  Luther  revealed  his 
presence  of  mind  and  his  deep  insight  into 
the  principle  involved.  He  had  come  pre- 
pared to  be  questioned  on  specific  points  of 
his  doctrines,  but  he  was  not  prepared  to 
answer  off  hand  a  single  question  which  was 
to  decide  his  fate  and  probably  the  whole 
future  of  Christendom.  His  answer,  there- 
fore, was  that  since  the  question  concerned 
faith  and  the  salvation  of  souls  and  the  Di- 
vine Word,  it  would  be  rash  and  dangerous 
to  say  anything  without  due  consideration. 
Some  have  taken  Luther's  request  for  time 
for  reflection  as  a  sign  of  weakness.  The 
very  opposite  is  the  truth.  The  fact  that  he 
was   denied   the   opportunity   to   state   his 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  61 

principles  and  defend  them  in  debate  prob- 
ably convinced  him  that  his  fate  was  already 
decided.  If  the  matter  was  to  resolve  itself 
into  a  struggle,  not  only  against  the  pope, 
but  against  the  emperor,  his  answer  must 
make  the  issue  clean-cut.  That  very  even- 
ing he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "With  Christ's 
help,  I  shall  never  retract  one  tittle!" 

On  his  second  appearance  before  the  diet, 
the  following  day,  Luther  was  master  of  him- 
self. He  could  not  retract  all  his  books, 
since  some  of  them  even  his  opponents  ad- 
mitted were  worthy  to  be  read  by  Christian 
people.  Neither  could  he  condemn  those 
books  against  the  papacy  and  popish  pro- 
ceedings without  strengthening  their  tyr- 
anny. "Under  cover  of  this  my  recanta- 
tion, the  yoke  of  its  shameless  wickedness 
would  become  utterly  unbearable  to  the  poor 
miserable  people,  and  it  would  be  thereby 
established  and  confirmed  all  the  more  if 
men  could  say  that  this  had  come  about  by 
the  power  and  direction  of  your  Imperial 
Majesty,  and  of  the  whole  Roman  Empire." 
The  third  kind  of  books  had  been  written 
against  individuals  who  had  defended  the 


62  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

papacy.  He  admitted  that  he  had  trans- 
gressed the  position  and  character  of  a  Chris- 
tian by  the  vehemence  of  his  attacks,  but  he 
could  not  withdraw  them  without  proof  of 
the  errors  contained  in  them. 

Enraged  by  the  audacity  of  the  monk  who 
dared  to  dispute  things  that  had  been  con- 
demned by  councils,  the  papal  party  de- 
manded an  unequivocal  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion: Do  you  recant  those  books  or  not? 
Luther's  answer  was  the  keynote  of  Protes- 
tantism. It  was  noble,  convincing,  and 
courageous. 

"Well,  then,  if  your  Imperial  Majesty  re- 
quires a  plain  answer,  I  will  give  one  without 
horns  or  teeth!  It  is  this:  that  I  must  be 
convinced  either  by  the  testimony  of  the 
Scriptures  or  clear  arguments.  For  I  be- 
lieve things  contrary  to  the  Pope  and  Coun- 
cils, because  it  is  as  clear  as  day  that  they 
have  often  erred  and  said  things  inconsistent 
with  themselves.  I  am  bound  by  the  Scrip- 
tures which  I  have  quoted ;  my  conscience  is 
submissive  to  the  Word  of  God ;  therefore  I 
may  not,  and  will  not,  recant,  because  to  act 


THE  BREAK  WITH  ROME  63 

against  conscience  is  unholy  and  unsafe.  So 
help  me  God!     Amen." 

All  further  efforts  to  shake  Luther's  firm- 
ness were  futile.  He  feared  his  conscience 
more  than  papal  bulls  and  imperial  edicts. 
He  appealed  to  a  higher  law — the  law  of 
Christ  revealed  in  Scripture.  His  warfare 
against  the  powers  which  sought  to  shackle 
the  human  mind  went  on  until  he  wrested 
from  them  the  key  to  salvation — the  open 
Bible. 

The  triumph  of  the  papal  party  at  the 
diet  of  Worms  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  A 
treaty  was  signed  between  the  emperor  and 
the  pope,  by  which  they  were  to  make  com- 
mon cause  against  their  enemies,  among 
whom  Luther  was  one.  The  edict  against 
Luther  stigmatized  his  doctrine  as  a  cesspool 
of  heresies,  forbade  the  printing,  selling,  and 
reading  of  his  books,  and  made  him  an  out- 
law. After  the  diet  of  Worms  the  world 
could  never  be  the  same. 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Radicals  at  Wittenberg 

For  almost  a  year  after  he  left  Worms 
Luther  lived  in  an  entirely  different  world. 
After  four  years  of  uncertainty  and  strife, 
thanks  to  his  friends  he  lived  in  seclusion  at 
the  Wartburg,  near  Eisenach,  where,  safe 
from  his  enemies,  he  could  rest  and  recover 
his  health,  which  had  commenced  to  break 
down  under  the  strain. 

But  Luther  was  a  man  of  action;  he  could 
not  be  idle.  His  pen  was  never  more  prolific. 
Besides  writing  numerous  letters,  commen- 
taries on  the  Bible,  and  various  treatises,  he 
began  the  translation  of  the  Bible  from  the 
original  tongues  into  clear,  idiomatic  Ger- 
man, a  monumental  achievement  which 
alone  would  entitle  him  to  lasting  fame. 
"With  little  apparatus,  not  even  consulting 
previous  translations  until  the  first  draft  was 
finished,"  writes  Doctor  Jacobs,  "he  worked 
with  such  rapidity  that  within  three  months 

64 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  65 

the  entire  New  Testament  was  in  idiomatic 
German  that  to  the  present  hour  is  the  won- 
der of  all  literary  critics.  His  entire  life  and 
character  are  reflected  in  the  style.  All  his 
attainments  are  kept  subordinate  to  the  one 
object  of  presenting  the  thoughts  of  Revela- 
tion in  language  that  is  the  simplest  and 
most  intelligible  to  all  classes  of  the  people. 
In  giving  the  Germans  their  Bible  he  gave 
the  German  language  a  permanent  literary 
form,  and,  upon  the  basis  of  a  common  lan- 
guage replacing  the  confusion  of  dialects 
that  had  heretofore  been  current,  unified  the 
German  people." 

At  the  Wartburg  Luther  had  nothing  to 
fear  from  the  papal  and  imperial  party,  but 
the  conduct  of  his  friends  at  Wittenberg  was 
most  disconcerting.  Without  the  steadying 
hand  of  Luther  events  moved  rapidly.  The 
high  tension  under  which  the  Wittenbergers 
had  lived  for  several  years  made  them  easy 
prey  for  fanatics  who  were  versed  in  the  art 
of  popular  appeal.  Even  the  man  who  had 
stood  closest  to  him,  the  gentle  and  scholarly 
Melanchthon,  was  swept  on  by  the  radical 
wave. 


66  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Under  the  leadership  of  one  of  Luther's 
colleagues  on  the  university  faculty,  Carl- 
stadt,  innovations  were  begun,  which  accel- 
erated into  the  wildest  excesses.  Priests, 
monks,  and  nuns,  declaring  themselves  no 
longer  bound  by  their  vows,  entered  the 
marriage  relation.  There  was  a  general  exo- 
dus from  the  monasteries  and  nunneries. 

Luther's  attitude  toward  the  monastic 
vow  is  highly  characteristic  of  the  man.  Far 
from  regarding  it  as  a  useless  incumbrance  to 
be  brushed  aside  lightly  at  the  call  of  per- 
sonal convenience,  he  carefully  weighed  the 
matter  in  his  own  mind  and  applied  the  test 
of  Scripture.  He  had  no  objection  to  the 
marriage  of  priests,  but  there  was  a  difference 
between  their  circumstances  and  those  of 
the  monks.  The  monk's  oath  had  been 
taken  without  compulsion.  As  his  mind 
traveled  farther  and  farther  away  from 
things  Romish,  however,  he  became  con- 
vinced that  such  an  oath  could  not  be  bind- 
ing because  it  was  contrary  to  the  Word  of 
God.  It  was  not  until  June,  1525, — almost 
eight  years  after  he  nailed  up  his  theses, — 
that  he  himself  married.     Luther's  respect 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  67 

for  law  and  order  instinctively  turned  him 
away  from  tumult.  For  this  reason  he  could 
not  sanction  the  methods  of  the  radicals, 
who  forced  the  monks  to  leave  the  cloister 
against  their  will. 

Luther  understood,  what  Carlstadt  and  his 
followers  did  not,  that  the  Reformation  was 
on  trial.  Each  step  away  from  Rome  must 
be  taken  with  caution,  citing  Scripture  and 
invoking  clear  and  cogent  reasoning,  to  pre- 
vent enemies  from  taking  unfair  adv^antage. 
From  the  Wartburg  he  wrote:  "How  I  wish 
that  Carlstadt  in  attacking  sacerdotal  celi- 
bacy would  quote  more  applicable  texts.  I 
fear  he  will  excite  prejudice  against  it. 
It  is  a  noble  cause  he  has  taken 
up,  I  wish  he  were  more  equal  to  it.  .  .  . 
For  what  is  more  dangerous  than  to  invite 
so  many  monks  and  nuns  to  marry  and  to 
urge  it  with  unconvincing  texts  of  Scripture, 
by  complying  with  which  invitation  the  con- 
sciences of  the  parties  may  be  burdened  with 
an  eternal  cross  worse  than  they  now  bear. 
I  wish  that  celibacy  might  be  left  free,  as  the 
Gospel  requires,  but  how  to  add  to  that 
principle  I  know  not." 


68  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

As  a  part  of  the  program  to  do  away  with 
the  remnants  of  Romanism,  Carlstadt  at- 
tacked the  celebration  of  the  mass  with  such 
vehemence  that  churches  were  invaded, 
images  destroyed,  and  priests  stoned. 

Out  of  respect  for  the  wishes  of  the  Elector 
Frederic,  his  protector,  Luther  refrained 
from  public  appearance  in  order  to  combat 
the  woi'k  of  the  fanatics,  much  as  he  desired 
to  do  so.  In  December  (1521),  before  the 
movement  was  well  under  way,  he  made  a 
secret  visit  to  Wittenberg  to  see  with  his  own 
eyes  how  affairs  were  shaping.  After  a  stay 
of  several  days  he  returned  to  his  retreat  con- 
vinced that  the  zeal  of  the  leaders  would  soon 
burn  itself  out.  Events  proved  otherwise. 
With  the  advent  of  the  Zwickau  prophets  the 
fire  burned  more  fiercely  and  threatened  to 
spread  to  other  communities. 

In  the  Saxon  town  of  Zwickau,  about 
eighty  miles  from  Wittenberg,  a  religious 
movement  entirely  apart  from  Lutheranism 
had  developed.  The  members  of  this  sect, 
later  called  the  Anabaptists,  were  well- 
meaning  and  sincere,  but  their  doctrines  were 
so  revolutionary — probably  impractical   as 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  69 

taught  by  their  most  extreme  prophets — 
that  their  application  involved  the  entire 
reconstruction  of  the  existing  poHtical,  social, 
and  religious  order.  Intoxicated  with  the 
new  wine  of  faith,  some  of  their  prophets,  by 
their  crude  religious  exercises  and  exhorta- 
tions, brought  deserved  ridicule  upon  them- 
selves and  discredit  upon  their  more  level- 
headed brethren. 

The  Zwickau  prophets  claimed  they  were 
inspired.  They  accepted  the  authority  of 
the  Scriptures  as  the  declared  will  of  God, 
but  they  professed  to  have  immediate  reve- 
lations from  God.  The  Bible  was  Luther's 
sole  authority;  the  more  extreme  prophets 
regarded  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
superior  in  authority  to  the  written  Word. 
The  Anabaptist,  therefore,  could  dispense 
with  outward  organization  because  he  stood 
in  direct  relation  with  God.  He  looked  with 
contempt  on  the  ponderous  tomes  of  dogma 
and  theological  lore.  Priest,  Bible,  and 
Church  were  unnecessary  mediums,  because 
each  man  was  a  medium.  He  rejected  infant 
baptism  because  to  him  it  was  unwarranted 
by   Scripture    and    unaccompanied    by    the 


70  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

faith  of  the  individual  baptized.  The  Ana- 
baptist conception  of  the  "Church"  was  that 
of  a  body  of  behevers  who  have  been  regen- 
erated by  the  spirit.  This  is  the  "puritan- 
ical" idea  of  the  Church.  It  follows,  of 
course,  that  there  should  be  no  connection 
between  " Church "  and  state.  "There  was, 
in  fact,"  writes  Professor  Vedder,  "no  re- 
conciling these  teachings  with  those  of  state 
churches,  set  up,  as  they  often  were,  by  un- 
worthy princes  and  ungodly  town  councils — 
churches  in  which  little  or  no  attempt  was 
made  to  discriminate  between  regenerate  and 
unregenerate.  These  were  reasons  enough 
— these  were  the  real  reasons — why  govern- 
ments everywhere  tried  to  harry  the  Ana- 
baptists out  of  their  lands." 

When  the  Zwickau  prophets  came  to  Witt- 
enberg, the  radicals  who  were  on  the  ground 
readily  joined  them.  Wittenberg  became  a 
religious  and  social  laboratory.  The  stu- 
dents were  advised  to  quit  their  studies. 
Learning  was  unnecessary;  the  Holy  Spirit 
would  enlighten  them.  Images  and  pictures 
in  the  churches  were  destroyed.  The  situa- 
tion speedily  passed  beyond  the  control  of 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  71 

the  authorities  and  the  conservative  ele- 
ment. A  strong  man  was  needed.  The 
town  council  sent  Luther  an  urgent  appeal 
to  return.  Without  asking  the  consent  of 
the  elector  and  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  Luther 
slipped  quietly  into  Wittenberg,  March  6, 
1522,  and  in  a  series  of  eight  remarkable  ser- 
mons, marvelous  for  their  sense  of  propor- 
tion, he  exposed  the  fallacies  of  the  prophets 
and  brought  order  out  of  chaos. 

One  of  the  men  who  listened  to  his  preach- 
ing wrote:  "Dr.  Martin's  coming  and 
preaching  have  given  both  learned  and  un- 
learned among  us  great  joy  and  gladness. 
For  we  poor  men  who  had  been  vexed  and 
led  astray  have  again  been  shown  by  him, 
with  God's  help,  the  way  of  truth.  Daily 
he  incontrovertibly  exposes  the  errors  into 
which  we  were  miserably  led  by  the  preach- 
ers from  abroad.  It  is  evident  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  in  him  and  works  through 
him,  and  I  am  convinced  he  has  returned  to 
Wittenberg  at  this  time  by  the  special  provi- 
dence of  the  Almighty." 

It  was  the  irony  of  fate  that  Luther,  the 
man  who  up  to  this  time  had  used  all  his 


72  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

magnificent  force  to  expose  the  hollowness  of 
forms  and  ceremonies,  felt  called  upon  to  ap- 
pear as  an  apologist  for  them.  The  very 
disturbances  he  had  come  to  denounce  were 
in  a  sense  the  consequences  of  his  own  teach- 
ings. But  the  methods  of  reform  practised 
by  the  prophets  were  destructive  of  law  and 
order.  Luther  would  reform  without  de- 
stroying. In  his  own  words,  reform  must 
begin  with  milk  for  babes,  the  pure  doctrine 
of  charity  and  faith,  after  which  may  come 
the  strong  meat  of  drastic  law.  "Compel  or 
force  any  one  with  power  I  will  not,  for  faith 
must  be  gentle  and  unforced.  ...  I  op- 
posed indulgences  and  all  the  papists,  but 
not  with  force;  I  only  wrote,  preached,  and 
used  God's  Word,  and  nothing  else.  .  .  . 
Had  I  wished  it,  I  might  have  brought  Ger- 
many to  civil  war.  Yes,  at  Worms  I  might 
have  started  a  game  which  would  not  have 
been  safe  for  the  Emperor,  but  it  would  have 
been  a  fool's  game.  So  I  did  nothing,  but 
only  let  the  Word  act." 

In  the  eight  sermons  he  frankly  stated  his 
dislike  for  many  of  the  ceremonies  and  cus- 
toms of  the  past,  but  he  declared  that  the 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  73 

Christian  life  consists  neither  in  refraining 
from  nor  engaging  in  external  practices.  It  is 
better  to  retain  indifferent  things  than  to  of- 
fend weak  consciences  by  aboHshing  them. 
When  the  Gospel  was  everywhere  adopted 
and  understood,  all  things  inconsistent  there- 
with would  fall  of  themselves. 

In  the  first  and  second  sermons  he  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  subject  of  the  cele- 
bration of  the  mass.  "Thus  there  are  two 
things:  the  one,  which  is  the  most  needful, 
and  which  must  be  done  in  one  way  and  no 
other;  the  other,  which  is  a  matter  of  choice 
and  not  of  necessity,  which  may  be  kept  or 
not,  without  endangering  faith  or  incurring 
hell.  In  both  love  must  deal  with  our  neigh- 
bor in  the  same  manner  as  God  has  dealt 
with  us;  it  must  walk  the  straight  road, 
straying  neither  to  the  left  nor  to  the  right. 
In  the  things  which  are  'musts'  and  are  mat- 
ters of  necessity,  such  as  believing  in  Christ, 
love  nevertheless  never  uses  force  or  undue 
constraint.  Thus  the  mass  is  an  evil  thing, 
and  God  is  displeased  with  it,  because  it  is 
performed  as  a  sacrifice  and  work  of  merit. 
Therefore  it  must  be  abolished.    Here  there 


74  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

is  no  room  for  question,  just  as  little  as  if 
you  should  ask  whether  you  should  pray  to 
God.  Here  we  are  entirely  agreed:  the  pri- 
vate mass  must  be  abolished,  as  I  have  said 
in  my  writings.  And  I  heartily  wish  it 
would  be  abolished  everywhere  and  only  the 
evangelical  mass  for  all  the  people  retained. 
Yet  Christian  love  should  not  employ  harsh- 
ness here  nor  force  the  matter.  It  should  be 
preached  and  taught  with  tongue  and  pen, 
that  to  hold  mass  in  such  a  manner  is  sin,  but 
no  one  should  be  dragged  away  from  it  by 
force.  The  matter  should  be  left  to  God: 
his  word  should  do  the  work  alone,  without 
our  work.  Why?  Because  it  is  not  in  my 
power  to  fashion  the  hearts  of  men  as  the 
potter  moulds  the  clay,  and  to  do  with  them 
as  I  please. 

"Now  if  I  should  rush  in  and  abolish  the 
mass  by  force,  there  are  many  who  would  be 
compelled  to  consent  to  it  and  yet  not  know 
their  own  minds,  but  say:  I  do  not  know  if  it 
is  right  or  wrong,  I  do  not  know  where  I 
stand,  I  was  compelled  by  force  to  submit 
to  the  majority.  And  this  forcing  and  com- 
manding results  in   mere  mockery,   an  ex- 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  75 

ternal  show,  a  fool's  play,  man-made  ordi- 
nances, sham-saints  and  hypocrites.  For 
where  the  heart  is  not  good,  I  care  nothing 
at  all  for  the  work.  We  must  first  win  the 
hearts  of  the  people." 

In  the  third  sermon  Luther  considers  "the 
things  that  are  not  matters  of  necessity,  but 
are  left  to  our  free  choice  by  God,  and  which 
we  may  keep  or  not;  for  instance,  whether 
one  shall  marry  or  not,  or  whether  monks 
and  nuns  shall  leave  the  cloisters."  Any 
priest,  monk  or  nun  who  cannot  restrain  the 
desires  of  the  flesh  should  marry,  and  thus 
relieve  the  burden  of  conscience. 

"Thus,  dear  friends,  it  is  plain  enough,  and 
I  believe  you  ought  to  understand  it  and  not 
make  liberty  a  law,  saying:  This  priest  has 
taken  a  wife,  therefore  all  priests  must  take 
wives.  Not  at  all.  Or  this  monk  or  that 
nun  has  left  the  cloister,  therefore  they  must 
all  come  out.  Not  at  all.  Or  this  man  has 
broken  the  images  and  burnt  them,  there- 
fore all  images  must  be  burned— not  at  all, 
dear  brother!  And  again,  this  priest  has  no 
wife,  therefore  no  priest  dare  marry.  Not 
at  all!     .     .     .     God  has  made  it  a  matter 


76  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

of  liberty  to  marry  or  not  to  marry,  and  thou 
fool  undertakest  to  turn  this  liberty  into  a 
vow  against  the  ordinance  of  God?  There- 
fore you  must  leave  liberty  alone  and  not 
make  a  compulsion  out  of  it;  your  vow  is 
contrary  to  God's  liberty. 

"But  we  must  come  to  the  images,  and 
concerning  them  also  it  is  true  that  they  are 
unnecessary,  and  we  are  left  free  to  have 
them  or  not,  although  it  would  be  much  bet- 
ter if  we  did  not  have  them.  I  am  not 
partial  to  them.  A  great  controversy  arose 
on  the  subject  of  images  between  the  Roman 
emperor  and  the  pope;  the  emperor  held 
that  he  had  the  authority  to  banish  the 
images,  but  the  pope  insisted  that  they 
should  remain,  and  both  were  wrong.  Much 
blood  was  shed,  but  the  pope  emerged  as 
victor  and  the  emperor  lost.  What  was  it 
all  about?  They  wished  to  make  a  'must' 
out  of  that  which  is  free,  and  that  God  can- 
not tolerate." 

These  extracts  from  the  Wittenberg  ser- 
mons will  serve  to  illustrate  their  lucidity. 
Proceeding  in  the  same  manner  in  the  re- 
maining   addresses,    he    discussed    various 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  77 

Other  matters  which  were  agitating  the  minds 
of  the  citizens,  counseling  moderation  and 
preaching  forbearance. 

Luther's  daily  life  measured  up  to  these 
precepts.  For  some  time  after  his  return  to 
Wittenberg  he  retained  his  cowl  and  lived  in 
the  Augustinian  monastery.  In  one  of  the 
churches  mass  was  celebrated  with  all  the 
old  Catholic  rites,  and  his  friends  were  not 
forbidden  to  attend. 

Luther's  attitude  towards  Roman  Catholic 
ceremonies  and  doctrines  appears  to  be  that 
of  a  "liberal";  but  really  it  is  conservatism 
rather  than  liberalism.  It  is  because  of  his 
conservatism  that  he  preaches  liberalism. 
The  paradox  is  misleading  without  explana- 
tion. Rather  than  see  the  triumph  of  the 
doctrines  of  men  like  Carlstadt  and  Zwingli, 
which  go  much  farther  than  his  own,  he  pre- 
fers to  adhere  to  the  "faith  of  the  fathers." 
A  violent  rupture  with  Rome  would  result  in 
even  further  innovations.  Scripture  must 
be  the  Christian's  guide,  and  in  so  far  as 
Catholic  forms  and  doctrines  adhere  to  it  or 
do  not  oppose  it,  they  are  safer  than  those 
of  the  extreme  reformers.     To  his  dying  day 


78  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Luther  never  forgot  the  disturbances  at  Wit- 
tenberg and  Zwickau. 

Although  Luther  declared  that  "the 
Church  of  Christ  is  found  wherever  the  Word 
of  God  is  preached  in  its  purity  and  the  sac- 
raments are  administered  according  to  the 
Word  and  institutions  of  Christ,"  he  insisted 
on  outward  organization.  His  conservative 
nature  would  not  allow  him  to  subscribe  to 
the  Modern  liberal  doctrine  that  each  man  is 
his  own  priest.  Quite  the  contrary,  the  com- 
mon man  needed  the  guidance  and  mediation 
of  a  priesthood,  which  must  administer  the 
sacraments  and  look  after  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  the  people.  On  one  phase  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  he  was  even  more  conserva- 
tive than  the  Romanists.  They  had  al- 
lowed the  sacrament  to  be  administered  in 
private,  but  Luther  condemned  the  practice 
because  of  the  bad  moral  effect  it  might  have 
upon  others.  "  For,"  he  declared,  "through 
time  every  one  might  so  take  advantage  of 
the  permission,  that  at  length  the  churches 
would  be  empty,  instead  of  being  the  meet- 
ing-place of  all,  where  they  make  a  public 
confession  of  their  faith."     The  early  Chris- 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  79 

tians  In  the  Acts  set  an  example  by  coming 
together  to  partake  of  the  sacrament — again 
appeaHng  to  the  authority  of  Scripture. 
"The  sacrament  and  confession  should  be 
administered  by  His  professing  servants,  be- 
cause Christ  says  it  was  instituted  in  memory 
of  Himself,  which  is,  in  St.  Paul's  words,  to 
show  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come;  and  at 
the  same  time  he  condemns  those  who  wish 
to  partake  of  it  alone  without  tarrying  for 
one  another.  And  no  one  can  baptize  him- 
self. For  these  sacraments  belong  to  the 
Church,  and  must  not  be  mixed  up  with  the 
duties  devolving  on  the  head  of  the  house." 
To  Luther  the  Church  is  the  community  of 
saints  because  only  those  are  true  members 
who  are  sanctified  in  the  true  faith.  Its 
members  are  called,  enlightened,  and  sancti- 
fied through  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  was  the 
ideal  Church;  but  some  sort  of  Church  gov- 
ernment was  necessary.  The  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment  in  spiritual  matters  could  not 
be  permitted,  because  there  is  a  norm,  fixed 
and  unerring,  which  every  Christian  is  under 
obligation  to  follow.  No  one  ought  to  be 
compelled  to  accept  the  Gospel,  but  no  one 


80  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

ought  to  be  allowed  to  traduce  it.  "If  any 
one  does  so,  the  magistrate  must  have  him 
up  and  admonish  him,  and  hear  his  reasons 
for  acting  as  he  does.  If  he  can  give  none, 
then  he  must  be  bound  over  to  silence,  so 
that  the  seeds  of  dissension  may  not  be 
sown." 

Luther  believed  that  compulsory  attend- 
ance at  Church  services  ought  to  be  estab- 
lished by  law.  The  Church  is  necessary  to 
the  stability  of  the  state  and  society.  The 
catechism  and  the  decalogue,  he  declares, 
teach  both  civic  and  domestic  duties  all  per- 
sons need  to  know,  whether  they  believe  the 
Gospel  or  not.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Church 
to  warn  and  admonish  such  members  as  fall 
into  sin  and  error,  and  if  this  proves  ineffec- 
tual, they  must  be  excluded  from  member- 
ship. 

The  stability  of  the  Church  would  be  en- 
dangered if  preachers  disagree,  because  the 
people,  unable  to  discriminate  between  con- 
flicting opinions,  would  be  led  astray.  Nei- 
ther should  the  people  have  the  right  to  dis- 
miss their  pastors  whenever  they  felt  inclined. 
Preachers  of  a  false  gospel,  however,  were  a 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  81 

curse  to  the  Church  and  the  community,  and 
ought  to  be  dismissed. 

In  1525,  in  response  to  requests,  Luther 
pubHshed  his  "Deutsche  Messe,"  or  "Ger- 
man Order  of  Worship."  This  was  a  very 
conservative  document,  and  all  the  more 
remarkable  considering  the  advanced  stage 
of  the  Reformation  when  it  was  given  out. 
Luther  did  not  intend  that  by  it  an  arbitrary 
ritual  should  be  imposed  upon  all  churches, 
but  that  it  should  serve  as  a  guide.  Gowns, 
candles,  altars,  elevation  of  the  host,  fast- 
days,  and  other  observances  not  incompati- 
ble with  evangelical  principles,  were  to  re- 
main unchanged.  That  Luther  should  have 
tolerated  these  remnants  of  Catholicism  at  a 
time  when  so  many  of  his  followers  were 
exerting  pressure  of  the  strongest  kind  to  in- 
duce him  to  sanction  their  radical  propa- 
ganda, reveals  the  unflinching  conservatism 
of  the  man.  Then,  if  ever,  he  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  a  hero  of  himself  by  throw- 
ing the  weight  of  his  influence  on  the  side  of 
popular  demand.  But  he  chose  the  path  of 
unpopularity. 

Luther's  conception  of  the   Holy  Scrip- 


82  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

tures  is  briefly  stated  in  his  commentary  on 
the  Small  Catechism:  "The  Holy  Scriptures 
are  the  Word  of  God,  written  by  the  Proph- 
ets, Evangelists,  and  Apostles  by  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Holy  Spirit."  Every  text 
must  be  taken  literally.  "If  a  controversy 
occur  as  to  matters  in  the  Holy  Scriptures 
and  it  cannot  be  harmonized,  let  it  go.  This 
is  not  in  conflict  with  the  articles  of  the 
Christian  Faith.  For  all  evangelists  agree 
in  testifying  to  the  fact  that  Christ  died  for 
our  sins;  but  with  respect  to  His  deeds  and 
miracles  they  observe  no  order."  He  ac- 
cepted without  question  all  the  miracles  of 
the  Bible.  Throughout  his  entire  life  he 
shows  a  profound  contempt  for  the  human 
reason  without  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  things  of  the  spirit.  "We  must  not 
investigate  concerning  the  Divine  Majesty, 
but  must  tie  our  wandering  and  soaring 
thoughts  to  the  Word.  He  who  attempts  to 
speculate  concerning  the  clouds  falls  into  an 
abyss." 

One  essential  thing  in  Luther's  theology  is 
the  identification  of  the  Word  of  God  and 
Holy  Scripture.     This  belief  was  probably 


THE  RADICALS  AT  WITTENBERG  83 

strengthened  by  the  course  of  the  Anabap- 
tists, who  distinguished  between  the  two; 
and  even  Professor  Harnack,  who  through- 
out his  discussion  of  Luther's  theology  criti- 
cizes him  harshly  when  it  tends  toward  dog- 
matism, excuses  his  attitude  toward  the 
Anabaptists,  although  he  does  make  him 
responsible  for  a  great  error.  Undoubtedly 
his  experience  with  this  radical  element 
caused  him  to  hold  even  more  firmly  to  con- 
servatism. Luther's  whole  work  consisted 
in  upholding  the  due  authority  of  the  Bible 
against  the  authority  of  man  preached  by 
the  Anabaptists  and  the  authority  of  the 
Church  taught  by  the  Romanists.  To 
Luther  the  revelation  of  God's  laws  through 
Scripture  was  all  sufficient  to  guide  mankind 
through  life  and  to  eternal  salvation  without 
the  machinery  of  the  Roman  Church;  but  to 
release  man  entirely  from  authority  would  be 
extremely  dangerous,  not  to  say  impossible. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Peasants'  Revolt 

In  solving  the  dangerous  situation  at 
Wittenberg  Luther  emerged  with  great  credit 
and  enhanced  prestige.  He  had  vanquished 
the  enemies  of  law  and  order  by  his  dignified 
conduct  and  measured  words.  He  carefully 
refrained  from  personalities.  He  even  con- 
sented to  an  interview  with  the  prophets, 
whom  he  seems  to  have  regarded  more  with 
pity  than  with  hostility.  But  Luther  was  no 
/trimmer;  no  man  ever  clung  with  greater 
--  tenacity  to  his  convictions  when  principles 
were  at  stake.  At  every  crisis  in  his  career 
his  almost  uncanny  intuition  singled  out  the 
essentials  from  the  non-essentials.  Ever 
ready  to  compromise  on  non-essentials,  he 
was  firm  as  a  rock  when  he  judged  that  the 
vital  principles  of  Christianity  were  in  the 
balance. 

It  is  the  fortune  or  the  misfortune  of  great 
leaders  of  men  who  blaze  the  way  for  future 

84 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  85 

generations  to  attract  a  motley  host  of  fol- 
lowers. For  the  time  being  Luther  personi- 
fied the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  serious- 
minded  men,  just  as  the  pioneers  of  freedom 
in  after  years  read  into  the  words  of  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln  sympathy  for  their  cause. 
Luther  had  championed  the  cause  of  freedom 
and  justice  against  a  tyrannical  system  which 
oppressed  his  fellow-countrymen.  How  could 
he  fail  to  respond  to  the  cries  for  justice  and 
freedom  everywhere? 

No  phase  of  Luther's  life  has  been  the 
object  of  such  bitter  criticism — with  the 
possible  exception  of  the  bigamy  of  Philip 
of  Hesse — as  has  his  attitude  toward  the 
Peasants'  Revolt  of  1525,  one  of  the  most 
serious  social  outbreaks  Europe  has  ever 
seen.  "Either  Luther  is  blamed  for  occa- 
sioning the  revolt,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "or 
else  he  is  accused  of  being  actuated  by  wrong 
motives  in  denouncing  it."  It  is  a  paradox 
of  Luther's  life  that,  while  he  was  a  stranger 
to  our  ideals  of  liberty,  the  Modern  world 
owes  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  man. 
Just  as  he  was  surprised  and  alarmed  at  the 
rapid  spread  and  enthusiastic  reception  of 


86  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  ninety-five  theses,  he  could  never  have 
dreamt  of  the  far-reaching  effects  of  the 
movement  which  he  inaugurated.  He  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  a  man  who  regarded  with 
much  thought  the  consequences  of  his  suc- 
cessive steps,  and  if  he  did  miscalculate  the 
results  of  his  actions,  the  reason  is  rather  to 
be  sought  in  the  restlessness  of  society  and  in 
the  violence  of  the  opposition.  Luther  was 
a  religious,  not  a  social  and  political,  re- 
former. But  men's  minds  are  not  divided 
into  water-tight  compartments.  His  ideas 
about  religious  liberty  seeped  into  men's 
political  and  social  thinking.  If  men  were 
equal  before  the  law  of  God,  why  were  they 
not  equal  before  the  law  of  man? 

Europe  was  ready  for  a  religious  revolution 
when  Luther  was  born.  Otherwise  how  can 
we  account  for  the  instantaneous  effect  of 
the  theses?  The  kings  of  France  and  Eng- 
land had  flouted  papal  bulls  without  alienat- 
ing their  subjects.  Indeed,  these  nations 
rallied  enthusiastically  around  their  kings 
who  resisted  papal  aggression.  Nationalism 
was  gnawing  at  the  vitals  of  the  Medieval 
system.    Likewise  within  the  new-born  states 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  87 

a  new  form  of  society  was  emerging  from  the 
ruins  of  the  old.  Villeinage  in  England  was 
an  anomaly,  as  the  Peasants'  Revolt  of  1381 
demonstrated.  In  the  Jacquerie  in  France 
in  1358  the  discontent  of  the  peasants  was 
made  hideous  by  the  most  terrible  revolu- 
tionary excesses. 

"The  frequent  insurrections  of  the  peas- 
ants throughout  the  fifteenth  century  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  show  plainly 
that  the  great  social  revolution  of  1525, 
which  convulsed  almost  every  corner  of  the 
Empire  from  the  Alps  to  the  Baltic,  was  not 
first  occasioned  by  the  preaching  and  writ- 
ings of  the  German  religious  reformers," 
writes  the  Catholic  historian,  Johannes  Jans- 
sen.  "Had  Luther  and  his  followers  never 
appeared  on  the  scene,  the  spirit  of  discon- 
tent and  insubordination,  which  had  gained 
ground  everjrwhere  among  the  common  peo- 
ple, would  still  have  produced  fresh  tumult 
and  sedition  in  the  towns  and  provinces. 
But  it  was  the  special  condition  of  things 
brought  about — or  rather  developed — by  the 
religious  disturbances,  which  gave  this  revo- 
lution its  characteristics  of  universality  and 


88  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

inhuman  atrocity.  .  .  .  When  once  it 
had  become  a  settled  fact  that  for  centuries 
past  the  nation  had  been  purposely  misled 
and  preyed  upon  by  its  spiritual  rulers,  it  was 
but  a  slight  step  further  to  discovering  that 
the  whole  fabric  of  the  secular  government 
also,  closely  bound  up  as  it  then  was  with 
spiritual  rule,  was  contrived  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  fleecing  the  lower  orders  of  society, 
and  that  Divine  justice  demanded  its  com- 
plete overthrow." 

"The  country  population,"  says  the  same 
author  in  another  place,  "was  especially 
ready  to  respond  to  the  preaching  of  the 
agitators  and  to  rise  in  rebellion  against  all 
existing  institutions.  The  whole  body  of 
ecclesiastics,  from  the  Pope  down  to  the 
humblest  mendicant  friar,  and  every  single 
statute  and  ordinance  of  the  Church,  were 
abused  and  ridiculed  throughout  the  provinces 
in  the  grossest  and  most  obscene  manner; 
in  drinking-taverns,  in  public  bath-houses, 
on  the  market-place,  in  fields,  and  lanes,  and 
highways,  riotous  mobs  declaimed  against 
*  the  priests,  those  servants  of  Lucifer,  those 
dragons  of  hell,  and  all  their  Sodomitish  jug- 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  89 

gling  with  saints  and  idols,  prayers  and  con- 
fessions, tithes  and  taxes.'  The  itinerant 
preachers  went  about  representing  the  in- 
iquities and  oppression  of  the  great  secular 
lords  as  altogether  intolerable.  'Spiritual 
and  secular  tyrants  and  oppressors,'  so  said  a 
scurrilous  pamphlet  of  the  year  1521,  'were 
the  iniquitous  cause  of  the  plague  that  was 
raging  in  Germany.'  For  at  that  time  the 
discontent  of  the  people  was  aggravated  by  a 
deadly  pestilence  mortality  in  all  the  German 
provinces,  while  in  Bavaria  no  single  town 
had  escaped  the  epidemic.  In  Vienna 
24,000  people  had  died,  and  the  plague  had 
not  yet  ceased.  At  Cologne,  all  along  the 
Rhine,  in  Suabia,  in  Switzerland,  and  in  Aus- 
tria, the  black  death  was  raging." 

The  annals  of  the  past  testify  to  the  fact 
that  all  great  class  struggles  are  preceded  by 
more  favorable  conditions  in  the  lower  strata 
of  society.  The  relaxing  of  oppression  in 
certain  regions  causes  a  slipping  and  faulting 
which  produce  changes  in  the  entire  contour 
of  society.  Violent  pressure  either  from 
above  or  below  may  disturb  the  entire  equi- 
librium. 


90  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

The  demands  of  the  peasants,  regarded  in 
the  light  of  the  present  day,  are  entirely  rea- 
sonable and  just.  They  demanded  the  right 
for  each  parish  of  appointing  and  removing 
its  own  clergymen.  Tithes  of  corn  would 
continue  to  be  paid,  but  the  payment  of  the 
produce  of  animals,  every  tenth  calf,  or  pig, 
or  egg,  or  the  like,  was  unjust.  Acknowledg- 
ing due  obedience  to  the  authorities  chosen 
and  set  up  by  God,  they  declared  themselves 
no  longer  serfs  and  bondmen,  but  freemen. 
The  right  to  hunt  game  and  take  fish  was  to 
be  free  to  all.  Woods  and  forests  belong  to 
all  for  fuel.  No  services  of  labor  were  to  be 
more  than  had  been  required  of  their  fore- 
fathers; if  more  service  was  required,  wages 
must  be  paid  for  it.  Exorbitant  rents  should 
be  reduced,  and  punishments  for  crimes 
fixed.  All  land  which  had  not  been  lawfully 
acquired  was  to  revert  to  the  community. 

The  demands  of  the  peasants  met  with  the 
most  stupid  and  obstinate  resistance  from 
the  ruling  powers.  In  some  instances  the 
nobles  went  out  of  their  way  to  impress  upon 
them  their  superiority.  Sympathy  begets 
sympathy,  and  violence  begets  violence.     In 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  91 

Its  early  stages  the  movement  was  peaceable, 
but  in  an  incredibly  short  time  the  torch  of 
revolution  was  carried  from  place  to  place 
until  the  whole  empire  was  enveloped.  Rev- 
olution is  the  harvest  time  of  the  irresponsi- 
ble members  of  society.  Criminals,  vaga- 
bonds, and  the  undesirables  of  every  class 
joined  the  peasants,  and  by  their  intemperate 
utterances  and  fiendish  conduct  brought 
odium  on  their  cause.  When  men's  minds 
are  inflamed  and  the  safety  of  their  families 
is  endangered,  distinctions  are  not  drawn. 
In  the  final  reckoning  the  innocent  suffer 
with  the  guilty. 

Germany  experienced  a  reign  of  terror. 
Castles,  monasteries,  and  churches  were 
burned;  towns  were  sacked;  priests  were  in- 
sulted; and  outrages  that  beggar  descrip- 
tion were  perpetrated  before  the  princes 
could  combine  to  restore  order.  So  stupen- 
dous was  the  rebellion,  and  so  ruthless  were 
the  methods  of  repression,  that  at  least  one 
hundred  thousand  people  perished.  So  thor- 
oughly were  the  peasants  subdued  that  to  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  their  lot  re- 
mained the  most  wretched  in  Europe. 


92  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Our  interest  in  the  revolt  centers  on  the 
part  Martin  Luther  played  in  it.  The  peas- 
ants had  good  reason  to  expect  his  sympathy 
and  assistance.  Not  only  was  he  the  son  of 
a  peasant,  but  his  words  on  certain  occasions 
had  revealed  that  he  was  keenly  alive  to  the 
injustice  of  the  social  order.  In  the  "Ad- 
dress to  the  Christian  Nobility"  he  had 
urged  the  necessity  of  a  general  law  against 
the  extravagance  and  excess  in  dress  and 
eating  and  drinking.  In  a  pamphlet  written 
only  a  few  months  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
revolt  he  had  been  particularly  severe  on  the 
avariciousness  and  selfishness  of  the  com- 
mercial classes.  "The  regraters,  forestall- 
ers,  and  monopolists,"  he  says,  "are  public 
robbers  and  extortioners.  Such  people  do 
not  deserve  to  be  called  men  or  to  live  among 
respectable  folk;  they  are  not  even  worth 
teaching  and  admonishing,  for  their  greed 
and  avarice  are  so  monstrous,  so  shameless, 
that  the  evil  of  it  infects  others  if  they  but 
stand  in  the  same  spot.  The  secular  author- 
ities would  do  right  if  they  stripped  such 
wretches  of  all  they  had  and  drove  them  out 
of    the    country."     Furthermore,    had    not 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  93 

Luther  defied  the  canon  law  and  the  edict  of 
the  emperor? 

It  seems  to  be  a  fact,  however,  that  many 
of  the  radicals  understood  Luther's  philoso- 
phy of  reform,  and,  expecting  no  assistance 
from  him,  could  not  say  enough  harsh  things 
about  the  man.  Thomas  Miinzcr,  one  of 
them  who  had  felt  the  sting  of  Luther's  in- 
vective before,  spurned  his  reliance  on  the 
Word  of  God  to  effect  reform.  He  would 
reverse  the  order.  The  tares  must  be  rooted 
out  before  the  harvest.  The  present  order 
must  be  uprooted  before  the  seeds  of  the 
Gospel  could  take  root. 

But  to  enlist  the  support  of  the  man  who 
had  worked  wonders  before  would  be  half 
the  battle.  His  was  a  name  to  conjure  with. 
Many  professed  his  gospel  and  quoted  his 
writings.  They  addressed  a  printed  appeal 
to  him,  which  he  answered  in  a  straightfor- 
ward way,  recognizing  the  need  of  reform  and 
warning  both  sides  against  un-Christian  con- 
duct. 

"In  the  first  place  no  one  on  earth  is  to 
blame  for  the  confusion  and  insurrection  ex- 
cept you  nobles  and  lords,  you  blind  bishops 


94  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  mad  priests  and  monks  who,  even  to- 
day, in  your  hardness,  do  not  cease  to  rage 
and  rave  against  the  holy  Gospel,  even 
though  you  know  it  is  true  and  that  you  can- 
not refute  it.  In  addition  the  secular  gov- 
ernment does  nothing  but  tax  and  squeeze 
so  that  you  may  maintain  your  pride  and 
display  till  the  common  man  neither  can  nor 
will  endure  it  any  longer.  The  sword  is  on 
your  necks  and  still  you  think  you  sit  so 
firmly  in  the  saddle  that  no  one  can  throw 
you  out.  Such  false  security  and  hardened 
arrogance  will  break  your  necks,  as  you  will 
find  out.     .     .     . 

"You  must  reform  and  submit  to  the 
Word  of  God.  If  you  will  not  do  so  will- 
ingly, you  will  have  to  do  so  by  compulsion, 
either  driven  by  these  peasants  or  by  some 
one  else.  If  you  would  slay  them  all  they 
would  still  be  unbeaten,  for  God  would  raise 
up  others,  since  it  is  He  that  is  punishing  and 
will  punish  you.  It  is  not  the  peasants  who 
have  set  themselves  against  you,  dear  Sirs, 
but  it  is  God  Himself  who  has  set  Himself 
against  you  to  punish  your  fury." 

Addressing  the  peasants,  he  cautions  them 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  95 

to  be  on  their  guard  against  false  prophets 
and  to  consider  well  the  path  they  elect  to 
follow. 

"That  the  government  has  done  wrong  in 
resisting  the  Gospel  and  oppressing  you  in 
temporal  affairs  is  true.  But  you  do  a  far 
greater  wrong  when  you  not  only  resist  God's 
Word  but  tread  it  underfoot,  invade  its 
rights,  override  God,  and,  in  addition,  de- 
prive the  government  of  its  authority  and 
rights,  yea,  of  all  that  it  possesses,  for  if  it 
have  lost  its  authority,  what  remains?  The 
destruction  of  all  order  is  far  worse  than  in- 
justice in  an  established  order.  God's  order 
stands : 

"Be  subject  not  only  to  good  masters  but 
also  to  the  evil.  If  you  so  do,  it  is  well.  If 
you  do  not  you  may  be  able  to  bring  some 
misfortune  to  pass,  but  in  the  end  it  will  un- 
doubtedly fail,  for  God  is  just  and  will  not 
suffer  it." 

His  warning  conclusion  is  that  God  is  the 
enemy  both  of  tyrants  and  rebels.  He  ad- 
vises that  certain  counts  and  gentlemen  of 
the  nobility  and  certain  aldermen  from  the 
cities  be  selected,  who  should  adjust  matters 


96  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

in  a  peaceable  way.  If  both  sides  yield  on 
certain  points,  the  whole  affair,  "if  it  cannot 
be  settled  in  a  Christian  manner,  may  at 
least  be  adjusted  with  regard  for  human 
rights  and  agreements." 

Had  Luther's  friendly  counsel  been  heeded 
untold  misery  would  have  been  avoided. 
Perhaps  the  situation  had  passed  beyond  the 
realm  of  reason.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Lu- 
ther's words  fell  on  ears  deafened  by  the  din 
of  tumult  and  battle.  Realizing  the  gravity 
of  the  situation,  he  made  a  preaching  tour 
through  the  seething  districts  in  a  last 
desperate  effort  to  stem  the  tide.  He  saw 
with  his  own  eyes  the  destruction  which  had 
already  been  wrought,  and  returned  with  the 
most  gloomy  forebodings  of  what  was  yet  to 
come.  Germany  was  face  to  face  with  an- 
archy. 

Luther,  the  apostle  of  reform,  could  not 
afford  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used  in  con- 
nection with  revolutions^''  Disregarding  all 
personal  considerations,  lie  made  one  mighty 
effort  to  disentangle  the  religious  reforma- 
tion from  civil  war  and  anarchy.  Irrespec- 
tive of  whether  or  not  he  saw,  as  we  now  see, 


? 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  97 

that  much  of  the  peasant  program  was  pre- 
mature and  impossible  of  realization  at  that 
stage  of  social  development,  he  cannot  justly 
be  criticised  for  ranging  himself  on  the  side 
of  law  and  order.  No  Modern  government 
worthy  of  the  name  has  ever  admitted  the 
right  of  its  subjects  to  resort  to  arms  in  order 
to  resist  its  duly  constituted  authorities.  It 
may  be  set  down  as  a  fundamental  fact  that 
Luther's  face  was  set  as  firm  as  steel  against 
the  use  of  force  to  effect  reform,  and  a  careful 
examination  of  his  whole  body  of  writings 
and  speeches  will  prove  it.  He  may  have 
been  inconsistent  at  times — what  great  man 
is  not? — but  he  was  never  an  opportunist. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  after  his  return  to 
Wittenberg  from  his  speaking  campaign  he 
prudently  waited  a  few  days,  until  the  cause 
of  the  peasants  was  obviously  hopeless,  be- 
fore publicly  taking  his  stand  on  the  side  of 
the  authorities.  Had  Luther  been  that  kind 
of  a  man  he  would  have  waited  until  the  tide 
had  turned.  The  statement  can  be  dis- 
proved in  the  simplest  possible  manner.  It 
was  less  than  three  days  after  he  had  aban- 
doned his  journey  that  he  wrote  his  tract 


98  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

"Against  the  murdering  and  thieving  hordes 
of  Peasants,"  in  which  he  condemns  sav- 
agely and  without  qualification  the  uprising. 
It  was  written  when  the  hour  was  darkest, 
when  it  seemed  that  only  the  most  extreme 
measures  would  avail.  If  the  tide  had  turned 
and  the  cause  was  hopeless,  what  man  would 
have  jeopardized  his  popularity  and  good 
name  among  the  peasants  by  launching 
against  them  the  most  scathing  and  violent 
pamphlet  he  ever  wrote?  Would  he  have 
exhorted  the  princes  to  "stab,  smite,  destroy 
here,  as  you  can"? 

The  peasants,  said  Luther,  deserved  death 
for  three  reasons:  (1)  They  had  broken 
their  oath  of  fealty;  (2)  they  had  resorted 
to  rioting  and  plundering;  and  (3)  they  had 
covered  their  sins  with  the  name  of  the  Gos- 
pel. In  no  way  did  Luther  desire  an  uncon- 
trolled rising  of  the  people.  It  was  the  duty 
of  the  prince  and  ruler  in  his  own  territory  to 
protect  his  subjects  against  wrongs,  whether 
inflicted  by  the  pope,  merchants,  or  nobles. 

The  only  justification  for  the  unpre- 
cedented harshness  of  Luther's  pamphlet 
against  the  peasants  (if,  indeed,  it  can  be 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  99 

justified)  is  the  instinctive  horror  he  always 
felt  for  sudden  breaks  with  the  past  and  espe- 
cially the  resort  to  force.  He  probably  felt 
that  the  situation  called  for  the  sharpest 
weapon  he  could  forge;  that  anarchy  must 
be  dealt  a  death  blow  in  order  to  rescue  soci- 
ety and  to  save  the  Reformation.  Luther 
always  drew  a  sharp  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween spiritual  and  secular  authority,  and 
he  ever  insisted  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Christian  subject  to  be  obedient  to  the  secu- 
lar authority  unless  the  men  charged  with  its 
enforcement  were  manifestly  in  the  wrong. 

In  his  "Address  to  the  Christian  Nobility" 
he  lays  down  the  Modern  principle  that 
every  person  living  within  the  boundaries  of 
a  state  is  subject  to  its  laws.  He  emphatic- 
ally rejects  the  Medieval  idea  of  a  state 
within  the  state,  which  the  strong  rulers  of 
the  later  Middle  i\ges  and  of  the  early  I\Iod- 
ern  Era  sought  to  erase  from  the  minds  of 
their  subjects.  ''Forasmuch  as  the  tem- 
poral power  has  been  ordained  by  God  for 
the  punishment  of  the  bad  and  the  protection 
of  the  good,  therefore  we  must  let  it  do  its 
duty  throughout  the  whole  Christian  body, 


100        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

without  respect  of  persons,  whether  it  strikes 
popes,  bishops,  priests,  monks,  nuns,  or 
whoever  it  may  be."  As  usual  he  invokes 
the  authority  of  Scripture  for  his  statement. 
St.  Paul  says:  "Let  every  soul  be  subject  to 
the  higher  powers."  Also  St.  Peter:  "Sub- 
mit yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for 
the  Lord's  sake." 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  in 
the  document  just  quoted  Luther  made  a 
stirring  appeal  for  reform  to  be  effected  by 
the  established  organs  of  society;  but  if  those 
who  have  been  entrusted  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  their  offices  are  remiss  in  their 
duties  and  disregard  their  oaths,  they  may  be 
called  to  account  and  even  dismissed  from 
office — a  fundamental  principle  of  Modern 
constitutional  law. 

If  the  state  is  a  part  of  the  Divine  economy 
for  man,  Luther  accepted  the  logic  of  the 
situation  and  held  that  it  is  the  right  and 
duty  of  the  government  to  wage  war  in  de- 
fence of  its  subjects  and  its  own  integrity. 
In  such  a  war  the  subjects  are  bound  to  offer 
their  estates  and  lives  and  to  conduct  the 
war  so  as  to  bring  the  adversary  into  subjec- 


THE  PEASANTS'  REVOLT  101 

tion,  without,  however,  resorting  to  undue 
severity  and  cruelty. 

We  shall  not  stray  far  from  the  truth  in 
assessing  Luther's  part  in  the  peasants'  re- 
volt if  we  single  out  the  controlling  motive  of 
his  life  molded  in  the  statue  at  Worms, 
which  represents  him  armed  only  with  a 
Bible.  "There  is  no  passage  in  Scripture," 
he  wrote  to  Melanchthon  from  the  Wart- 
burg,  "where  we  are  commanded  to  despise 
those  in  authority,  but  rather  to  honor  and 
pray  for  them." 

Luther  leaned  heavily  on  the  secular  arm, 
not  only  from  choice,  but  from  necessity. 
His  unshaken  determination  to  stand  by  the 
ruling  powers  almost  overwhelmed  him  in 
the  fateful  year  of  the  Peasants'  Revolt.  As 
it  was,  the  insurrection  had  a  disastrous 
effect  upon  the  conservative  reformation. 
Nothing  that  Luther  could  do  would  ever 
dispel  from  the  minds  of  the  peasants  the 
conviction  that  the  man  whose  gospel  prom- 
ised so  much  for  them  was  anything  but  a 
traitor  to  their  cause.  Even  the  princes, 
many  of  them,  abandoned  the  evangelical 
movement,   which   they  believed  concealed 


102         CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

in  its  bosom  the  dagger  of  revolt.  Germany 
divided  against  itself;  the  hope  of  a  national 
Church  was  destroyed  in  the  conflagration. 
But  Luther,  although  robbed  of  some  of  his 
hopefulness,  never  abandoned  his  conviction 
that  in  the  long  run  the  shield  of  faith  would 
withstand  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked. 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  prophets  at 
Wittenberg,  says  Professor  Emerton,  "it  be- 
came perhaps  the  most  important  and  dis- 
tinctly the  most  difificult  problem  of  the 
Lutheran  party  to  show  to  the  world  its  con- 
servative and  constructive  side,  without 
withdrawing  for  a  moment  from  its  original 
position  of  hostility  to  the  papal  system." 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Marburg  Colloquy 

The  historian  writes  in  the  sand;  and 
every  age  writes  its  own  history.  The  docu- 
ments of  the  past — the  historian's  material — 
reflect  the  letter  but  not  the  spirit  of  the  age 
in  which  they  were  written.  The  supreme, 
and  perhaps  impossible,  aim  of  the  historian 
should  be  to  breathe  into  the  lifeless  pages 
which  record  the  words  of  the  world's  great 
men  their  inmost  thoughts,  conflicting  emo- 
tions, the  obstacles  which  loom  up  before 
them,  the  personal  seasoning,  and,  in  short, 
all  those  elements  summed  up  in  the  term 
the  "psychology  of  the  age." 

The  student  of  the  Era  of  the  Protestant 
Reformation  approaches  his  subject  with  a 
perspective  which  enables  him  to  levy  a  more 
accurate  assessment  of  values.  Herein  he 
possesses  an  undoubted  advantage  over  the 
men  who  were  the  instruments  of  destiny, 
and  to  whom  the  future  was  a  closed  book. 

103 


104        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

But  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which  his 
age  differs  in  the  spirit  and  conditions  of  that 
age,  his  judgment  of  men  may  be  uncharit- 
able and  erratic.  The  citizens  of  a  nation 
which  has  demonstrated  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  the  truth  that  all  men  are  created 
equal  instinctively  sympathize  with  the  Ger- 
man peasants,  whose  demands  in  their 
essence  breathed  that  spirit.  In  Luther's 
attitude  we  see  reflected  the  harsh,  unreason- 
able spirit  of  a  time  forever  past.  The  dis- 
criminating mind  of  Professor  Emerton, 
however,  sensed  the  true  meaning  of  his  ac- 
tion when  he  wrote : 

"Luther's  perfectly  sound  instinct  had 
shown  him  from  the  first  that  the  German 
people  were  not  to  be  carried  away  by  any 
abstractions  of  democracy.  Nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  there  any  hope  of  reviving 
the  ancient  authority  of  the  emperor.  Luth- 
er's appeal  to  the  German  nobility  was  based 
on  the  fact  that  whatever  political  virtue 
there  was  in  Germany  was  to  be  found  in  its 
princes,  and  the  response  of  the  princes 
proved  them  equal  to  the  emergency.  The 
call  to  defend  the  new  religion  involved  also 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  105 

the  prospect  of  complete  deliverance  from  all 
imperial  control. 

"The  full  meaning  of  the  Lutheran  move- 
ment is,  of  course,  far  clearer  to  us  than  it 
could  have  been  to  anyone  in  the  year  1520, 
and  yet  as  early  as  1525  every  one  of  the 
points  of  view  just  indicated  had  been  clearly 
recognized  by  every  thoughtful  observer. 
The  tendencies  were  plain ;  the  question  was, 
how  soon  and  how  far  would  tendencies  de- 
velop into  facts?" 

In  a  period  when  society  is  fluid  abstrac- 
tions precipitate  into  the  concrete.  Ideas 
become  real:  individuals  personify  move- 
ments. Lutheranism,  Zwinglianism,  and 
Calvinism  suggest  more  than  men ;  they  are 
institutions — civilizations  if  you  please.  The 
personality  is  there,  but  it  has  been  poured 
into  a  mold.  Leadership  is  much  more  than 
a  response  to  the  Zeitgeist,  but  it  can  never 
be  disassociated  from  it. 

The  religious  movements  in  the  several 
countries  of  Europe  had  many  things  in  com- 
mon, but  they  were  profoundly  affected  by 
the  personality  of  the  leaders  and  the  condi- 
tions peculiar  to  each  country.     The  basic 


106        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

principles  of  Calvinism  took  form  in  Calvin's 
legal  mind,  but  Calvinism  carried  a  distinct 
flavor  in  France  and  Scotland  and  in  the  New 
England  wilderness. 

In  Germany  Lutheranism  and  Zwinglian- 
ism  jostled  each  other.  Having  much  in 
common,  they  shaded  off  into  each  other; 
but  the  differences  were  fundamental.  They 
remain  fundamental  to  this  day,  when  the 
men  and  environments  which  gave  birth  to 
them  have  long  since  passed  away. 

Huldreich  Zwingli,  the  Swiss  reformer,  was 
born  on  New  Year's  day,  1484,  being  thus  a 
few  weeks  younger  than  Luther.  Although 
there  are  points  of  similarity  between  the 
two  men,  their  differences  are  so  elemental 
that  it  is  hardly  a  stretch  of  the  truth  to  say 
that  about  the  only  thing  they  had  in  com- 
mon was  enmity  to  the  Roman  Church. 
Luther  became  a  reformer  in  spite  of  himself; 
he  spoke  the  plain  truth  at  the  diet  of 
Worms,  when  he  said:  "Here  I  stand.  I 
can  do  no  other."  He  spoke  throughout  his 
whole  life  as  one  who  could  not  help  it.  His 
terrible  struggle  with  the  problem  of  sin  and 
redemption  had  cut  deep  lines  in  his  char- 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  107 

acter.  The  bonds  of  historic  Christianity 
held  him  fast.  The  thing  he  sought  to  avoid 
above  all  else  was  an  abrupt  break  with  the 
past.  Only  the  compelling  sense  of  respon- 
sibility could  jar  him  loose  from  the  old 
moorings. 

Zwingli  approached  Christian  truth 
through  the  side-door  of  humanism.  The 
mysticism  of  the  Gospel  of  John  and  of  the 
Epistles  of  Paul  in  his  mind  were  blended  in 
a  background  far  different  from  Luther's. 
Zwingli  was  the  scientist;  Luther  was  the 
mystic.  Science  and  reason  bowed  to  Luth- 
er's Bible;  Zwingli's  Bible  yielded  its  truth 
upon  the  application  of  a  more  Modern 
exegesis.  Luther's  rather  arrogant  state- 
ment that  Zwingli  was  of  "another  spirit" 
was  essentially  correct.  Zwingli  was  incapa- 
ble of  taking  in  Luther's  conception  of  an  un- 
broken doctrinal  connection  with  the  past. 
Luther  favored  the  retention  of  everything 
not  contrary  to  Scripture,  while  Zwingli 
would  retain  nothing  not  expressly  com- 
manded by  Scripture.  Luther's  catalogue  of 
"non-essentials"  meant  little  to  Zwingli,  and 
his  list  of  "essentials"   was  radically  cur- 


108        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

tailed.  The  meaning  of  all  this  is  that  the 
Zwinglian  movement  was  radical,  while  the 
Lutheran  was  conservative. 

The  greatest  obstacle  to  the  union  of  the 
German  and  Swiss  movements  was  doctrinal 
divergence;  but  another  circumstance  must 
be  taken  into  account.  Zwingli's  political 
philosophy  was  quite  different  from  that  of 
the  German  reformer.  Luther  fought  shy 
of  political  and  social  problems.  Zwingli 
was  a  statesman,  who  believed  that  religious 
reform  should  be  carried  on  the  wings  of 
political  action.  He  was  a  republican  who 
had  imbibed  the  spirit  of  a  self-governing 
community,  and  he  had  none  of  Luther's 
ingrained  respect  for  authority.  Luther 
never  favored  schemes  of  aggressive  warfare 
to  propagate  his  gospel,  but  Zwingli's  mind 
was  full  of  political  combinations,  and  his 
life  came  to  an  end  on  the  field  of  battle, 
whither  he  had  marched  with  his  followers. 
It  can  readily  be  understood  that  Zwingli's 
political  activity  was  distasteful  to  Luther, 
who  read  into  it  a  mistrust  of  spiritual  forces. 

Luther  had  heard  of  Zwingli  and  his  work, 
but   they  had   never  crossed   swords   until 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  109 

1526,  when  they  entered  into  a  public  con- 
troversy over  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. Luther  had  already  acquired  a  distrust 
of  his  opponent  as  an  ally  of  the  radical 
Carlstadt.  Public  discussion  carried  on  at 
long  range  seldom  promotes  harmony,  and 
in  this  case  the  upshot  of  it  all  was  to  con- 
firm the  respective  parties  in  their  opinions 
and  to  reveal  the  utter  hopelessness  of  a 
solution  by  compromise. 

In  his  explanation  of  the  Third  Article  of 
the  Apostles'  Creed  Luther  made  plain  his 
conception  of  the  way  of  salvation.  "I  be- 
lieve that  I  cannot  by  my  own  reason  or 
strength  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord,  or 
come  unto  him;  but  the  Holy  Ghost  has 
called  me  through  the  Gospel,  enlightened 
me  by  his  gifts,  and  sanctified  and  preserved 
me  in  the  true  faith;  in  like  manner  as  he 
calls,  gathers,  enlightens,  and  sanctifies  the 
whole  Christian  Church  on  earth,  and  pre- 
serves it  in  union  with  Jesus  Christ  in  the 
true  faith;  in  which  Christian  Church  he 
daily  forgives  abundantly  all  my  sins,  and 
the  sins  of  all  believers,  and  will  raise  up  me 
and  all  the  dead  at  the  last  day,  and  will 


110        CHARACTER  OF  MARTLN  LUTHER 

grant  everlasting  life  to  me  and  to  all  who  be- 
lieve in  Christ.     This  is  most  certainly  true." 

Luther  believed  in  the  total  depravity  of 
human  nature  and  in  the  absolute  hopeless- 
ness of  man  to  obtain  salvation  by  his  own 
efforts.  Free  will  without  the  grace  of  God 
is  able  to  do  nothing  but  sin.  Now  since 
man  cannot  by  his  own  efforts  attain  unto 
eternal  salvation  and  lead  a  Godly  life,  it 
follows  that  it  is  only  through  the  grace  of 
God  manifested  in  the  atonement  of  the 
Saviour.  God  would  have  all  men  to  be 
saved,  and  freely  and  without  price  extends 
his  grace  to  all,  but  he  has  appointed  certain 
external  and  visible  means  through  which  it 
may  be  received.  The  means  of  grace  are 
the  Word  of  God  and  the  holy  sacraments. 

Luther,  as  we  have  seen,  rejected  the  sac- 
ramental system  of  the  Roman  Church,  re- 
taining only  those  "outward  signs  of  inward 
grace"  expressly  instituted  by  the  Saviour 
himself,  as  recorded  in  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament.  In  the  "Babylonian  Cap- 
tivity" he  retained  the  sacraments  of  bap- 
tism, the  Lord's  Supper,  and  penance,  but  in 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  111 

the  two  Catechisms  published  in  the  year 
1529  he  retained  only  the  first  two. 

Luther's  slavish  adherence  to  the  literal 
words  of  the  Bible  led  him  far  away  from  the 
old  Church,  but  he  could  not  travel  to  the 
end  of  the  road  with  Zwingli  and  those  of 
like  mind  who  found  no  half-way  station  be- 
tween Rome  and  reason.  Luther's  doctrine 
of  the  "real  presence"  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ  in  the  bread  and  wine  is  fully  as 
difficult,  if  not  more  so,  for  the  mind  of  the 
rationalist  to  apprehend  as  is  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  that  the 
"substance"  of  the  bread  and  wine  through 
the  consecration  of  the  priest  are  changed 
into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  while  the 
"accidents"  of  taste,  color,  and  form  remain. 
Luther,  who  accepted  without  question  all 
the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible,  found  no 
stumblingblock  in  the  doctrine  that  "It  is 
the  true  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  and  under  the  bread  and  wine 
which  we  Christians  are  commanded  by  the 
Word  of  God  to  eat  and  drink."  "Why 
should  not  Christ,"  he  asks,  "include  his 
body  in  the  substance  of  the  bread  just  as 


112        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

well  as  in  the  accidents?  The  two  sub- 
stances of  fire  and  iron  are  so  mingled  in  the 
heated  iron  that  every  part  is  both  fire  and 
iron.  Why  could  not  much  rather  Christ's 
body  be  thus  contained  in  every  part  of  the 
substance  of  the  bread?"  To  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  the  substance  and  form, 
and  to  say  that  one  changes  while  the  other 
remains,  was  to  Luther  an  absurd  juggling 
with  words,  a  mere  philosophical  quibble  un- 
warranted by  the  words  of  Scripture. 

As  to  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrament  Luther 
and  the  Romanists  were  not  so  far  apart,  but 
their  views  certainly  did  not  coincide.  They 
were  one  on  the  point  that  by  partaking  of 
the  sacrament  the  soul  receives  food,  which 
nourishes  and  strengthens  the  new  man;  but 
Luther  laid  more  emphasis  on  the  subjective 
attitude  of  the  communicant.  He  denied 
that  the  sacrament  becomes  efficacious  in  its 
being  celebrated,  regardless  of  the  attitude 
of  the  individual.  He  did  not,  however, 
make  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the  elements 
dependent  upon  the  faith  of  the  communi- 
cant. 

Luther,  as  we  have  observed,  had  a  pro- 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  US 

found  contempt  for  human  reason  in  matters 
of  faith.  His  defense  of  the  real  presence  is 
not  concerned  with  explanations  how  it  is 
possible;  he  is  more  concerned  to  deny  that 
transubstantiation  is  the  necessary  explana- 
tion of  that  presence.  He  accepted  the  lit- 
eral meaning  of  the  words  "This  is  my  body  " 
and  "This  is  my  blood,"  and  had  no  patience 
with  those  who  gave  them  a  figurative  inter- 
pretation, as  did  Zwingli. 

The  intellectual  honesty  of  the  man  is 
shown  in  a  letter  to  the  Christians  of  Strass- 
burg,  of  December  14,  1524:  "I  freely  con- 
fess that  if  Carlstadt  or  any  other  could  have 
convinced  me  five  years  ago  that  there  was 
nothing  in  the  sacrament  but  mere  bread  and 
wine,  he  would  have  done  me  a  great  service. 
I  was  sorely  tempted  on  this  point  and  wres- 
tled with  myself  and  tried  to  believe  that  it 
was  so,  for  I  saw  that  thereby  I  could  give 
the  hardest  rap  to  the  papacy.  I  read  treat- 
ises by  two  men  who  wrote  more  ably  in  de- 
fence of  the  theory  than  has  Dr.  Carlstadt 
and  who  did  not  so  torture  the  Word  to  their 
own  imaginations.  But  I  am  bound;  I  can- 
not believe  as  they  do ;  the  text  is  too  power- 


114        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

ful  for  me  and  will  not  let  itself  be  wrenched 
from  the  plain  sense  by  argument. 

"And  if  any  one  could  prove  to-day  that 
the  sacrament  were  mere  bread  and  wine,  he 
would  not  much  anger  me  if  he  was  only  rea- 
sonable. (Alas!  I  am  too  much  inclined  that 
way  myself  when  I  feel  the  old  Adam.)  But 
Dr.  Carlstadt's  ranting  only  confirms  me  in 
the  opposite  opinion." 

Christendom  for  centuries  has  been  di- 
vided into  sects.  Mankind  craves  religious, 
political,  and  social  creeds.  The  denial  of 
a  creed  sometimes  affirms  another.  The 
period  of  the  Reformation  was  a  time  when 
men  demanded  a  statement  of  religious 
principles.  This  was  especially  true  of  the 
rulers.  It  was  important  that  the  reformers 
should  clear  their  skirts  of  political  heresies, 
and  to  this  end  they  were  either  called  upon 
or  felt  it  necessary  to  formulate  statements  of 
their  religious  principles,  in  order  to  avoid 
friction  with  political  authorities. 

The  Swiss  movement  as  typified  in  Zwingli 
flowed  in  an  entirely  different  channel  from 
that  of  the  German  Reformation,  partly  be- 
cause of  institutional  differences  rooted  in 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  115 

national  traits  and  partly  because  of  the 
character  of  their  leaders.  Zwingli  could  not 
accept  Luther's  doctrine  of  the  total  de- 
pravity of  human  nature,  and  his  mind  was 
unable  to  follow  Luther's  Biblical  exegesis 
and  mystical  conception  of  the  Eucharist. 
He  rejected  altogether  the  doctrine  of  the 
real  presence.  The  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  a  great  memorial,  in  which  the 
partakers  confessed  their  belief  in  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  Son  of  God.  According  to  Zwingli, 
neither  the  words  of  Scripture  nor  the  neces- 
sity of  man  required  the  belief  that  Christ 
was  corporeally  present  in  the  bread  and  wine. 
God  deals  with  men  without  visible  and  ex- 
ternal means.  Luther  detected  in  this  the 
spirit  of  the  Anabaptists,  who  taught  that 
God  enlightens  without  the  external  Word. 

The  verbal  warfare  over  the  nature  of  the 
sacrament  was  distasteful  and  alarming  to 
Philip,  landgrave  of  Hesse,  who  deplored 
factional  strife  among  the  Protestants.  He 
attached  no  such  importance  to  the  issue. 
It  was  of  far  greater  importance  to  empha- 
size the  matters  held  in  common,  not  the 
least  of  which  was  enmity  to  the  papacy  and 


116        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

the  emperor.  His  mind  was  occupied  with 
plans  for  a  defensive  league  of  Protestant 
princes  against  the  encroachments  of  the 
Catholic  rulers.  For  this  reason  he  invited 
the  men  who  had  been  hurling  epithets  at 
each  other  to  a  conference  at  Marburg,  to 
meet  on  October  1,  1529. 

Zwingli  accepted  the  invitation  with  avid- 
ity, not  because  he  expected  to  yield  one  jot 
or  tittle  on  the  question  of  the  sacrament,  but 
because  he  believed  in  the  possibility  of  com- 
ing to  some  sort  of  an  understanding  which 
would  make  possible  closer  co-operation  be- 
tween the  factions.  He  would  waive  certain 
points  in  favor  of  political  expediency. 

Luther  was  skeptical  of  the  whole  business. 
Political  considerations  did  not  appeal  to 
him  at  all.  He  had  written  to  the  elector  of 
Saxony  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  a 
Protestant  league.  "  Do  not,  therefore,  pro- 
ceed with  this  league,  for  it  will  only  incite 
the  opponents  to  form  one  also,  and  possibly 
to  take  measures  for  self-protection  and  de- 
fence, which  otherwise  they  would  not  have 
thought  of.  Moreover  it  is  to  be  feared — 
nay,    rather,    it    is    almost    certain — that 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  117 

wherever  that  turbulent  young  Landgrave 
has  started  a  league  he  will  discover  good  rea- 
sons for  not  only  acting  on  the  defensive,  but 
for  resorting  to  aggression  as  he  did  a  year 
ago."  By  forming  an  alliance  with  the 
"Zwinglians  who  are  fighting  against  God 
and  the  sacrament  as  the  most  inveterate 
enemies  of  the  Divine  Word,  ...  we 
are  taking  all  their  ungodliness  on  our  own 
shoulders  and  making  ourselves  participa- 
tors therein." 

In  accepting  the  invitation  of  the  land- 
grave Luther  wrote  that,  while  the  desire  for 
unity  and  peace  was  laudable,  he  had  little 
hope  that  the  parties  could  "see  eye  to  eye" 
regarding  the  sacrament.  "They  might 
have  written  us  long  ago,  saying  how  they 
wished  peace,  or  could  still  do  so,  for  I  cannot 
yield  to  them,  being  convinced  that  our  cause 
is  right  and  theirs  wrong.  Therefore  pray 
consider  whether  this  Marburg  conference 
will  do  good  or  harm;  for  if  they  do  not 
yield  we  shall  part  without  fruit,  and  our 
meeting,  as  well  as  your  Grace's  outlay  and 
trouble,  will  have  been  in  vain.  And  then 
they  will  boast,  and  load  us  with  reproach,  as 


118        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

is  their  wont,  so  things  will  be  worse  than 
ever.  ...  If  this  spirit  of  union  should 
result  in  bloodshed,  such  action  is  within  its 
nature,  as  was  seen  in  Franz  von  Sickingen, 
Carlstadt,  and  Miinzer;  and  there,  too,  we 
were  blameless." 

Luther  entered  the  colloquy  more  to 
oblige  the  landgrave  of  Hesse  and  the  elector 
of  Saxony  than  out  of  hope  for  union.  Luth- 
er's mind  was  settled  when  he  arrived  at 
Marburg.  Was  it  out  of  fear  that  the  essen- 
tial nature  of  their  differences  might  for  one 
brief  moment  vanish  from  his  mind  that  he 
wrote  with  a  piece  of  chalk  on  the  table  be- 
fore him,  THIS  IS  MY  BODY.?  Did  it  sig- 
nify that  it  was  not  a  question  of  yielding  his 
own  opinion,  but  something  far  more  serious: 
compromising  the  Word  of  God?  Luther 
not  only  was  adamant  in  refusing  to  conceal 
their  differences  by  verbal  camouflage,  but 
declined  to  grasp  the  right  hand  of  brother- 
hood extended  by  Zwingli,  remarking  that 
"Yours  is  a  different  spirit  from  ours." 

In  pronouncing  judgment  on  Luther's  con- 
duct at  the  conference,  it  must  be  kept  in 
mind  that  he  was  as  fully  alive  to  the  desir- 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  119 

ability  of  union  as  was  the  Swiss  reformer. 
But  union  at  the  expense  of  God's  Word  and 
his  own  conscience  was  too  great  a  price  to 
pay.  During  the  progress  of  the  conference 
he  wrote  to  his  wife  that,  although  he  could 
not  count  the  Sacramentarians,  as  he  called 
Zwingli  and  his  followers,  as  brethren,  he 
wished  to  live  at  peace  and  on  good  terms  with 
them.  Five  years  later  he  wrote  to  the  land- 
grave as  follows:  "Now  your  Grace  knows 
how  anxious  I  have  always  been  for  unity, 
having  been  much  tried  by  such  dissension, 
knowing  how  injurious  it  is  to  Christ's  king- 
dom, and  that  the  pope  would  have  been 
humbled  long  ago  had  your  Grace  managed 
to  carry  through  the  much-desired  negotia- 
tions with  Bucer  and  his  friends.  And  even 
yet  I  am  ready  to  concede  all  that  I  can  with 
a  clear  conscience,  but  I  fancy  that  even 
among  the  foreign  [Swiss]  preachers  there  are 
few  who  adhere  to  Biicer,  and  both  parties 
will  perhaps  later  decry  both  one  and  the 
other. 

"Nothing  could   be  dearer  to  my  heart 
than  an  enduring  concord,  but  if  its  founda- 


120  CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

tion  be  brittle  and  precarious,  then  peace  is 
at  an  end." 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  permitted  to  ap- 
propriate the  verdicts  of  three  liberal  his- 
torians, all  of  whom  reject  Luther's  doctrine 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

Professor  Harnack  writes:  "Had  Luther 
yielded  in  the  question  of  the  Eucharist,  the 
result  would  have  been  the  formation  of 
ecclesiastical  and  political  combinations, 
which,  in  all  probability,  would  have  been 
more  disastrous  for  the  German  Refor- 
mation than  its  isolation,  for  the  hands 
that  were  held  out  to  Luther — Carlstadt, 
Schwenkfeld,  Zwingli,  etc. — and  which  to  all 
appearance  could  not  be  grasped  simply  on 
account  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist, 
were  by  no  means  pure  hands.  Great  po- 
litical plans,  and  dangerous  forms  of  uncer- 
tainty as  to  what  evangelical  faith  is,  would 
have  obtained  the  rights  of  citizenship  in 
the  German  Reformation.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist 
constituted  a  salutary  restraint.  In  its  lit- 
eral import  what  Luther  asserted  was  not 
correct;  but  it  had  its  ultimate  source  in  the 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  121 

purpose  of  the  strong,  unique  man  to  main- 
tain his  cause  in  its  purity,  as  it  had  pre- 
sented itself  to  him,  and  to  let  nothing  for- 
eign be  forced  upon  him;  it  sprang  from  the 
well-grounded  doubt  as  to  whether  these  peo- 
ple had  not  another  spirit.  In  the  choice  of 
the  means  he  committed  an  error;  in  the 
matter  itself,  so  far  as  what  was  in  question 
was  the  averting  of  premature  unions,  he  was 
probably  in  the  right." 

These  are  the  words  of  Professor  Vedder, 
who  calls  Luther  a  consistent  bigot  to  the 
last:  "And,  in  fairness  to  Luther,  it  must  be 
added  that  he  had  a  strong  reason,  quite 
convincing  to  his  own  mind,  against  the  alli- 
ance proposed,  or  any  alliance.  He  had 
actually  persuaded  himself  that  a  Protestant 
league  would  lead  to  bloodshed  rather  than 
prevent  it;  although  the  avowed  purpose  of 
the  union  was  purely  defensive,  and  no  party 
was  to  be  pledged  to  anything,  unless  some 
member  were  attacked  on  account  of  reli- 
gion. It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  a  strong 
Protestant  league  might,  in  some  future  con- 
tingency, have  been  persuaded  to  engage  in  a 
policy  of  aggression,  but  under  all  the  cir- 


122         CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

cumstances  Luther's  idea  seems  entirely  ab- 
surd and  without  foundation.  Nevertheless, 
we  must  grant  him  sincerity  and  consistency 
in  this  attitude." 

Professor  Ranke,  referring  to  the  refusal  of 
the  Lutherans  to  form  political  alliances 
against  the  emperor  and  Catholic  princes  at 
Marburg  and  in  the  years  immediately  fol- 
lowing, offers  the  following  observations: 
"It  is  very  easy  to  repeat  the  censure  that 
has  so  often  been  thrown  upon  this  decision. 
It  was  certainly  not  the  part  of  political 
prudence. 

"But  never  was  a  course  of  action  more 
purely  conscientious,  more  regardless  of  per- 
sonal consequences,  more  grand  and  mag- 
nanimous. 

"These  noble  men  saw  the  enemy  ap- 
proach; they  heard  his  threats;  they  were 
under  no  illusion  as  to  his  views;  they  were 
almost  persuaded  that  he  would  attempt  the 
worst  against  them. 

"They  had  an  opportunity  of  forming  a 
league  against  him  which  would  shake 
Europe,  at  the  head  of  which  they  might  op- 
pose a  formidable  resistance  to  his  projects  of 


THE  MARBURG  COLLOQUY  123 

universal  domination,  and  make  an  appeal  to 
fortune ;  but  they  would  not — they  disdained 
the  attempt. 

"Not  out  of  fear  or  mistrust  of  their  own 
strength  and  valor;  —  these  are  considera- 
tions unknown  to  souls  like  theirs.  They 
were  withheld  by  the  power  of  Religion 
alone. 

"  First,  because  they  would  not  mix  up  the 
defence  of  the  faith  with  interests  foreign  to 
it,  nor  allow  themselves  to  be  hurried  into 
things  which  they  could  not  foresee. 

"Secondly,  they  would  defend  no  faith  but 
that  which  they  themselves  held;  they 
would  have  feared  to  commit  a  sin  if  they 
connected  themselves  with  those  who  dif- 
fered from  them;  —  on  one  point  only,  it  is 
true,  but  that  one  of  the  highest  importance. 

"Lastly,  they  doubted  their  right  to  resist 
their  sovereign  and  head,  and  to  trouble  the 
long-established  order  of  the  empire. 

"  Thus,  in  the  midst  of  the  jarring  interests 
of  the  world,  they  took  up  a  position  coun- 
selled only  by  their  God  and  their  own  con- 
sciences, and  there  they  calmly  awaited  the 
danger.     '  For  God  is  faithful  and  true,'  says 


124        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

Luther,  'and  will  not  forsake  us.'  He  quotes 
the  words  of  Isaiah,  '  Be  ye  still  and  ye  shall 
be  holpen.' 

"Unquestionably  this  is  not  prudent,  but 
it  is  great." 


CHAPTER  VII 
The  Augsburg  Confession 

It  remains  to  consider  the  most  important 
document  of  the  Reformation:  the  Augs- 
burg Confession.  In  this  connection  we  are 
concerned  with  it  as  perhaps  the  most  strik- 
ing and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  conserva- 
tive character  of  the  German  Reformation 
and  of  its  founder.  At  the  Marburg  Collo- 
quy Luther  spurned  all  efforts  at  compro- 
mise with  the  radical  reformatory  movement 
in  the  face  of  the  strongest  kind  of  pressure ; 
at  the  diet  of  Augsburg,  the  following  year, 
his  authorized  representatives  omitted  no 
word  or  act  to  emphasize  how  much  Luther- 
anism  had  in  common  with  Catholicism. 

After  the  diet  of  Worms  Luther  was  le- 
gally an  outlaw,  but  circumstances  prevented 
the  emperor  from  enforcing  the  edict. 
Charles  V  was  a  loyal  Catholic  and  was 
greatly  alarmed  at  the  rapid  spread  of  heresy 
in  his  extensive  dominions;  but  he  felt  it 
125 


126        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

incumbent  upon  him  to  settle  the  problems 
of  more  immediate  concern  before  proceeding 
in  real  earnest  against  the  heretics.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1530  he  decided  that 
that  time  had  come.  The  young  man  who 
had  granted  a  hearing  to  the  friar  of  Witten- 
berg in  1521,  shortly  after  his  election  to  the 
imperial  office,  was  now  the  most  powerful 
sovereign  in  Europe.  He  had  subdued  his 
turbulent  subjects  in  Spain;  he  had  emerged 
victorious  in  the  wars  with  his  most  ambi- 
tious and  powerful  rival,  Francis  I,  king  of 
France;  he  had  settled  his  political  disputes 
with  the  pope,  and  was  about  to  receive  at 
his  hands  the  crown  of  Charlemagne  upon 
taking  the  oath  to  defend  the  pope,  the 
Roman  Church,  and  all  their  possessions, 
dignities,  and  rights;  Italy  was  at  his  feet; 
everything  was  favorable  to  a  settlement  in 
Germany. 

In  January,  1530,  Charles  issued  an  invita- 
tion from  Bologna,  where  the  coronation  was 
shortly  to  take  place,  summoning  the  elec- 
tors, princes,  and  all  the  estates  of  the  empire 
to  meet  at  Augsburg  on  the  8th  of  April, 
The  conciliatory  language  of  the  summons 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  127 

indicates  that  the  emperor  hoped  for  a  peace- 
ful settlement;  but,  failing  in  that,  he  was 
ready  to  resort  to  force.  The  object  of  the 
diet  was  to  solve  the  religious  problem,  and 
to  prepare  for  war  against  the  Turks,  who 
were  thundering  at  the  very  doors  of  Chris- 
tendom. The  estates  were  assured  that 
"every  man's  judgment,  view  and  opinion 
should  be  heard,  understood  and  considered, 
in  love  and  kindness,  in  order  to  bring  and 
unite  them  into  a  single  Christian  truth,  so  as 
to  dispose  of  everything  that  had  not  been 
rightly  explained  or  treated,  on  both  sides: 
that  a  single  true  religion  may  be  accepted 
and  held  by  us  all,  and,  as  we  all  live  and 
serve  under  one  Christ,  so  we  may  live  in  one 
fellowship,  Church  and  unity." 

The  Protestant  princes  accepted  the  invi- 
tation, with  what  hopes  for  harmony  and  co- 
operation it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  elector 
of  Saxony  commanded  the  Wittenberg  theo- 
logians to  draw  up  a  statement  of  their  reli- 
gious opinions  in  order  that  the  estates  might 
have  something  definite  before  them.  Luther 
desired  to  be  present  at  the  diet,  but,  as  he 
was  under  the  imperial  ban,  the  elector  re- 


128        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

fused  to  allow  him  to  accompany  the  party 
further  than  the  castle  of  Coburg.  If  diplo- 
matic language  could  effect  a  union,  the 
selection  of  Philip  Melanchthon  to  present 
the  Protestant  cause  and  to  accompany  the 
elector  was  indeed  happy.  The  Augsburg 
Confession  is  essentially  the  product  of 
Luther,  although  the  matrix  which  embalms 
the  jewels  of  the  Lutheran  faith  was  cer- 
tainly not  the  product  of  his  rugged  and 
sometimes  uncouth  pen.  Luther  not  only 
approved  the  Confession,  although  the  final 
form  was  probably  somewhat  more  conserva- 
tive in  phraseology  than  he  wished,  but  he 
also  kept  in  close  touch  at  all  times  with  the 
proceedings  at  Augsburg. 

Undeniably  the  situation  of  Protestantism 
was  critical.  Melanchthon  worked  under 
the  most  trying  circumstances,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  firm  and  cheering  letters 
from  Luther,  which  bolstered  up  his  irreso- 
lute and  timid  will,  the  outcome  of  the  diet 
might  have  been  disastrous.  Luther's  firm- 
ness at  Marburg  is  frequently  mistaken  for 
intolerance  and  bigotry  by  liberal  Protestant 
historians,  but  they  are  all  but  unanimous  in 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  129 

approving  his  conduct  at  Coburg,  Conser- 
vatism and  cowardice  were  not  synonyms 
with  Luther. 

On  June  27th  he  wrote  to  Melanchthon: 
"From  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  am  inimical 
to  those  worrying  cares  which  are  taking  the 
very  heart  out  of  you  and  gaining  the  upper 
hand.  It  is  not  the  magnitude  of  the  cause, 
but  the  weakness  of  our  faith  which  is  at 
fault;  for  things  were  much  worse  in  John 
Huss's  days  than  in  ours.  And  even  were 
the  gospel  in  as  great  danger  now  as  then,  is 
not  He  who  has  begun  the  good  work  greater 
than  the  work  itself,  for  it  is  not  our  affair? 
Why  then  make  a  martyr  of  yourself?  If  the 
cause  be  not  a  righteous  one,  then  let  us 
repudiate  it;  but  if  it  be,  why  make  God  a 
liar  in  not  believing  His  wonderful  promises, 
when  He  commands  us  to  be  of  good  cheer 
and  cast  all  our  care  upon  Him,  for  He  shall 
sustain  us?" 

Two  days  later  he  writes:  "I  have  re- 
ceived your  Apology,  and  wonder  at  your 
asking  how  far  one  may  yield  to  the  Pa- 
pists. For  my  part  I  think  too  much  has 
been  conceded.     If  they  do  not  accept  it, 


130        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

what  more  can  we  do?  I  ponder  this  busi- 
ness night  and  day,  looking  at  it  from  all 
sides,  searching  the  Scriptures,  and  the 
longer  I  contemplate  it  the  more  I  am  con- 
vinced of  the  sure  foundation  on  which  our 
teaching  rests,  and  therefore  am  becoming 
more  courageous,  so  that,  if  God  will,  not  a 
word  shall  be  withdrawn,  come  what  may. 

.  .  .  May  God  so  increase  your  faith 
that  the  devil  and  the  whole  world  may  be 
powerless  against  you.  Let  us  comfort  our- 
selves with  the  faith  of  others  if  we  have 
none  ourselves.  For  some  have  faith,  else 
there  would  be  no  Church  on  earth;  and 
Christ  would  have  ceased  to  dwell  with  us. 
For  if  we  are  not  the  Church,  or  a  part  of  it, 
where  is  it?  Are  the  Dukes  of  Bavaria,  or 
the  Pope,  or  the  Sultan  the  Church?  If  we 
have  not  God's  word,  who  then  has  it?  I 
pray  without  ceasing  that  Christ  may  be 
with  you.     Amen!" 

That  the  final  form  of  the  Confession,  as 
read  before  the  diet,  was  acceptable  to 
Luther,  may  be  seen  in  the  letter,  under  date 
of  July  9th,  to  Justus  Jonas,  who  was  present 
at  the  occasion:   "There  can  never  be  entire 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  131 

unanimity  in  doctrine.  For  how  can  one 
reconcile  Christ  and  Belial?  Perhaps  the 
marriage  of  the  priests  and  the  Sacrament  in 
both  kinds  may  be  left  an  open  question,  but 
this  is  after  all  only  a  'perhaps.'  Still,  I 
hope  that  the  religious  question  may  be  de- 
ferred, and  meantime  a  world-wide  peace  be 
established.  If  by  Christ's  blessing  this  be 
achieved,  then  much  has  been  accomplished 
at  this  Diet. 

"First,  and  greatest  of  all,  Christ  has  been 
publicly  proclaimed  through  our  glorious 
Confession,  so  that  the  great  ones  of  the 
earth  cannot  boast  that  we  have  fled  and 
were  afraid  to  confess  our  faith.  Only  I 
grudge  you  the  privilege  of  being  present  at 
the  reading  of  this  grand  Confession." 

On  the  25th  of  June — a  great  day  in  Luth- 
eran annals — the  Augsburg  Confession  was 
read.  So  moderate  was  its  tone  that  even 
the  Romanists  were  surprised.  Yet  the  doc- 
ument was  not  colorless.  Professor  Har- 
nack,  who  criticizes  its  scholastic  arrange- 
ment and  deplores  its  diplomatic  approaches 
to  the  old  Church  and  the  way  it  treats  the 
Zwinglians  as   naughty  children,   does  not 


132        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

deny  that  at  the  most  important  points  "it 
struck  the  nail  on  the  head."  Although  not 
originally  intended  for  that  purpose,  the 
Confession  was  admirably  suited  to  become 
a  Church  "constitution"  or  a  creed.  Like 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it 
constituted  a  framework  of  principles  upon 
which  might  be  reared  a  superstructure 
suited  to  the  conditions  of  a  given  time  or 
place.  Throughout  the  whole  document 
there  is  a  constant  appeal  to  the  authority  of 
Scripture.  An  incident  at  the  diet  illustrates 
this  very  well.  When  the  duke  of  Bavaria 
was  informed  by  Eck  that  he  could  refute  the 
Lutheran  opinions,  not  with  the  Scriptures, 
but  with  the  fathers,  he  replied:  "I  am  to 
understand,  then,  that  the  Lutherans  are 
within  the  Scriptures,  and  we  Catholics  on 
the  outside?" 

The  Augsburg  Confession  is  divided  into 
three  parts:  (1)  The  preface  to  the  emperor; 
(2)  twenty-two  chief  articles  of  faith  taught 
in  the  Lutheran  churches;  and  (3)  seven 
articles  in  which  are  enumerated  the  abuses 
corrected. 

The  preface  cannot  be  interpreted  in  any 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  133 

Other  way  than  as  a  straightforward  assertion 
that  the  Lutherans  sincerely  desired  union, 
if  reconciliation  was  possible.  "Wherefore, 
in  obedience  to  Your  Imperial  Majesty's 
wishes,  we  offer,  in  this  matter  of  religion, 
the  Confession  of  our  preachers  and  of  our- 
selves, showing  what  manner  of  doctrine 
from  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the  pure  Word 
of  God  has  been  up  to  this  time  set  forth  in 
our  lands,  dukedoms,  dominions  and  cities, 
and  taught  in  our  churches.  And  if  the 
other  Electors,  Princes  and  Estates  of  the 
Empire  will  present  similar  writings,  to  wit, 
in  Latin  and  German,  according  to  the  said 
Imperial  proposition,  giving  their  opinions  in 
this  matter  of  religion,  here  before  Your  Im- 
perial Majesty,  our  most  clement  Lord,  we, 
with  the  Princes  and  friends  aforesaid,  are 
prepared  to  confer  amicably  concerning  all 
possible  ways  and  means,  so  far  as  may  be 
honorably  done,  that  we  may  come  together, 
and,  the  matter  between  us  on  both  sides 
being  peacefully  discussed  without  offensive 
strife,  the  dissension,  by  God's  help,  may  be 
done  away  and  be  brought  back  to  one  true 
and  accordant  religion;    for  as  we  all  serve 


134        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

and  do  battle  under  one  Christ,  we  ought  to 
confess  the  one  Christ,  and  so,  after  the 
tenor  of  Your  Imperial  Majesty's  Edict, 
everything  be  conducted  according  to  the 
truth  of  God,  which,  with  most  fervent  pray- 
ers, we  entreat  of  God. 

"In  the  event,  therefore,  that  the  dif- 
ferences between  us  and  the  other  parties  in 
the  matter  of  religion  cannot  be  amicably 
and  in  charity  settled  here  before  Your  Im- 
perial Majesty,  we  offer  this  in  all  obedience, 
abundantly  prepared  to  join  the  issue  and  to 
defend  the  cause  in  such  a  general,  free, 
Christian  Council,  for  the  convening  of 
which  there  has  always  been  accordant  ac- 
tion and  agreement  of  votes  in  all  the  Im- 
perial Diets  held  during  Your  Majesty's 
reign,  on  the  part  of  the  Electors,  Princes, 
and  other  Estates  of  the  Empire.  To  this 
General  Council,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
Your  Imperial  Majesty,  we  have  made  ap- 
peal in  this  greatest  and  gravest  of  matters 
even  before  this  in  due  manner  and  form  of 
law.  To  this  appeal,  both  to  Your  Imperial 
Majesty  and  to  a  Council,  we  still  adhere, 
neither  do  we  intend,  nor  would  it  be  possi- 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  135 

ble  for  us,  to  relinquish  it  by  this  or  any 
other  document,  unless  the  matter  between 
us  and  the  other  side,  according  to  the  tenor 
of  the  latest  Imperial  citation,  can  be  amica- 
bly settled  and  brought  to  Christian  concord, 
of  which  this  also  is  our  solemn  and  public 
testimony." 

The  very  first  article  ratifies  the  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Nicaea  which  asserts  the  his- 
toric doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  it  con- 
demns all  the  heresies  which  in  times  past 
have  sprung  up  against  it. 

The  doctrine  of  original  sin  is  strongly  em- 
phasized, and  it  is  asserted  without  qualifica- 
tion that  man  cannot  be  justified  before  God 
by  his  own  strength,  merit  or  works,  but 
solely  for  Christ's  sake  through  faith,  which 
may  be  obtained  by  the  Word  of  God  and 
the  sacraments. 

Regarding  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  it  is 
properly  the  congregation  of  the  saints  and 
true  believers,  in  which  the  Gospel  is  rightly 
taught  and  the  sacraments  rightly  adminis- 
tered; but  it  is  not  necessary  that  human 
traditions,  rites  or  ceremonies,  instituted  by 
men,  should  be  everywhere  alike.     In  order 


136        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

to  show  that  they  were  not  breaking  away 
from  the  sacramental  side  of  religion,  the 
Lutherans  affirmed  the  validity  of  the  sacra- 
ments administered  by  evil  men,  that  is, 
that  the  personal  character  of  the  priest  has 
no  relation  with  the  validity  of  his  sacra- 
mental acts. 

Although  the  existence  of  the  seven  sacra- 
ments is  not  specifically  denied,  only  two  are 
mentioned:  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper, 
The  statement  on  the  Eucharist  is  as  con- 
servative as  it  could  be  made,  asserting 
"that  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  are 
truly  present,  and  are  distributed  to  those 
who  eat  in  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,"  and  re- 
fraining from  a  denial  of  transubstantiation. 
The  sacraments  were  ordained,  not  to  be 
marks  of  profession  among  men,  but  rather 
to  be  signs  and  testimonies  of  the  will  of  God 
toward  us,  instituted  to  awaken  and  confirm 
faith  in  those  who  use  them.  "They  there- 
fore condemn  those  who  teach  that  the  Sac- 
raments justify  by  the  outward  act,  and  do 
not  teach  that,  in  the  use  of  the  Sacraments, 
faith  which  believes  that  sins  are  forgiven,  is 
required." 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  137 

With  regard  to  confession  thie  document 
declares  that  auricular  confession  is  unne- 
cessary— not  essential — but  that  private  ab- 
solution ought  to  be  retained. 

"Of  Rites  and  Usages  in  the  Church,  they 
teach,  that  those  ought  to  be  observed  which 
may  be  observed  without  sin,  and  which  are 
profitable  unto  tranquillity  and  good  order  in 
the  Church,  as  particular  holydays,  festivals, 
and  the  like. 

"Nevertheless,  concerning  such  things,  let 
men  be  admonished  that  consciences  are  not 
to  be  burdened,  as  though  such  observance 
was  necessary  to  salvation.  They  are  ad- 
monished also  that  human  traditions  insti- 
tuted to  propitiate  God,  to  merit  grace  and 
to  make  satisfaction  for  sins,  are  opposed  to 
the  Gospel  and  the  doctrine  of  faith.  Where- 
fore vows  and  traditions  concerning  meats 
and  days,  etc.,  instituted  to  merit  grace  and 
to  make  satisfaction  for  sins,  are  useless  and 
contrary  to  the  Gospel." 

In  order  to  show  that  their  teachings  do 
not  destroy  the  state  or  the  family,  but  espe- 
cially require  their  preservation  as  ordinances 
of  God,     .     .     .     "they  teach     .     .     .     that 


138        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

it  is  right  for  Christians  to  bear  civil  office, 
to  sit  as  judges,  to  determine  matters  by  the 
Imperial  and  other  existing  laws,  to  award 
just  punishments,  to  engage  in  just  wars,  to 
serve  as  soldiers,  to  make  legal  contracts,  to 
hold  property,  to  make  oath  when  required 
by  the  magistrates,  to  marry,  to  be  given  in 
marriage. 

"They  condemn  the  Anabaptists  who  for- 
bid these  civil  offices  to  Christians.  They 
condemn  also  those  who  do  not  place  the 
perfection  of  the  Gospel  in  the  fear  of  God 
and  in  faith,  but  in  forsaking  civil  offices; 
for  the  Gospel  teaches  an  eternal  righteous- 
ness of  the  heart." 

The  worship  of  saints  is  condemned,  since 
"Scripture  teaches  not  the  invocation  of 
saints,  or  to  ask  help  of  the  saints,  since  it 
sets  before  us  Christ,  as  the  only  Mediator, 
Propitiation,  High-Priest  and  Intercessor. 
He  is  to  be  prayed  to,  and  hath  promised 
that  He  will  hear  our  prayer.     .     .     ." 

"This  is  about  the  Sum  of  our  Doctrine,  in 
which,  as  can  be  seen,  there  is  nothing  that 
varies  from  the  Scriptures,  or  from  the 
Church   Catholic,   or   from    the    Church   of 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  139 

Rome  as  known  from  Its  writers.  This  being 
the  case,  they  judge  harshly  who  insist  that 
our  teachers  be  regarded  as  heretics.  The 
disagreement,  however,  is  on  certain  Abuses, 
which  have  crept  into  the  Church  without 
rightful  authority.  And  even  in  these,  if 
there  were  some  difference,  there  should  be 
proper  lenity  on  the  part  of  bishops  to  bear 
with  us  by  reason  of  the  Confession  which  we 
have  now  drawn  up;  because  even  the  Can- 
ons are  not  so  severe  as  to  demand  the  same 
rites  everywhere,  neither,  at  any  time,  have 
the  rites  of  all  churches  been  the  same;  al- 
though, among  us,  in  large  part,  the  ancient 
rites  are  diligently  observed.  For  it  is  a 
false  and  malicious  charge  that  all  the  cere- 
monies, all  the  things  instituted  of  old,  are 
abolished  in  our  churches.  But  it  has  been 
a  common  complaint  that  some  Abuses  were 
connected  with  the  ordinary  rites.  These, 
inasmuch  as  they  could  not  be  approved  with 
a  good  conscience,  have  to  some  extent  been 
corrected." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  this  sec- 
ond part  of  the  Confession  is  merely  a  state- 
ment of  the  things  which  are  taught  in  the 


140        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

churches  and  a  repudiation  of  some  of  the 
teachings  of  the  more  radical  Protestants  and 
of  the  abuses  which  have  crept  into  the 
Roman  Church.  In  the  third  part  an  at- 
tempt is  made  to  enumerate  and  explain  the 
abuses  which  have  been  removed.  It  is  an 
apology  for,  or  a  justification  of,  what  the  re- 
formers had  done.  Melanchthon  confined 
himself  strictly  to  this  purpose,  and  denied 
himself  (what  probably  would  have  been  a 
pleasure  to  Luther)  the  temptation  to  launch 
a  virulent  attack  on  the  flagrant  corruption 
and  abuses  of  Romanism. 

The  laity  are  given  both  kinds  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  because  the  usage  has  the 
commandment  of  Christ  and  is  hallowed  by 
the  practice  of  the  early  Christians.  "This 
usage  has  long  remained  in  the  Church,  nor  Is 
it  known  when,  or  by  whose  authority,  It 
was  changed." 

The  marriage  of  priests  is  permitted  in  or- 
der to  avoid  the  greater  evils  of  incontinence. 
Furthermore  it  is  evident  that  In  the  ancient 
Church  priests  were  married  men,  for  Paul 
says  that  a  bishop  should  be  the  husband  of 
one  wife. 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  141 

Regarding  the  mass,  all  the  usual  cere- 
monies are  retained,  save  that  the  parts  sung 
in  Latin  are  interspersed  here  and  there  with 
German  hymns,  which  have  been  added  to 
teach  the  people.  The  mass  is  not  to  be  used 
for  profit,  not  to  be  multiplied,  and  not  to  be 
used  as  a  sacrifice. 

Confession  is  not  abolished,  and  the  people 
are  most  carefully  taught  concerning  the 
faith  and  assurance  of  absolution;  but  an 
enumeration  of  sins  is  unnecessary,  for  it  is 
impossible  to  recount  all  sins.  "If  no  sins 
were  forgiven,  except  those  that  are  re- 
counted, consciences  could  never  find  peace; 
for  very  many  sins  they  neither  see,  nor  can 
remember." 

Fasts  and  the  observation  of  traditions  are 
left  to  the  will  and  conscience  of  each  individ- 
ual, but  such  observances  are  not  necessary 
acts  of  worship.  Every  Christian  ought  to 
"exercise  and  subdue  himself  with  bodily  re- 
straints and  labors,  that  neither  plenty  nor 
slothfulness  tempt  him  to  sin."  And  such 
discipline  ought  to  be  urged  at  all  times,  and 
not  only  on  a  few  and  set  days. 

The  deplorable  conditions  in  the  monas- 
teries and  the  unwarranted  conception  of 


142        CHARACTER  OF  MARTIN  LUTHER 

monasticism  as  a  higher  Hfe  and  the  exag- 
gerated obHgatlon  or  effect  of  the  vow  have 
caused  the  Protestants  to  reject  the  validity 
of  the  monastic  vow. 

The  power  of  the  bishops  ought  to  be  con- 
fined to  preaching  the  Gospel,  the  remission 
of  sins,  and  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments. A  clear  distinction  is  made  between 
the  power  of  the  Church  and  the  civil  power. 
"The  power  of  the  Church  has  its  own  com- 
mission. .  .  .  Let  it  not  break  into  the 
office  of  another;  let  it  not  transfer  the  king- 
doms of  this  world;  let  it  not  abrogate  the 
laws  of  civil  rulers;  let  it  not  abolish  lawful 
obedience;  let  it  not  interfere  with  judg- 
ments concerning  civil  ordinances  or  con- 
tracts ;  let  It  not  prescribe  laws  to  civil  rulers 
concerning  the  form  of  the  Commonwealth." 
"If  bishops  teach  or  ordain  anything  con- 
trary to  the  Gospel,  the  congregations  have  a 
commandment  of  God  prohibiting  obedi- 
ence." 

The  Augsburg  Confession  was  conceived 
in  a  spirit  of  conciliation.  The  Lutherans 
wished  for  nothing  but  peace  and  toleration. 
They  passed  over  In  silence  the  vexed  ques- 
tions of  Indulgences,  pilgrimages,  and  excom- 


THE  AUGSBURG  CONFESSION  143 

munication.  The  Confession  reflected  the 
spirit  of  Luther,  who  contended  only  against 
such  doctrines  and  practices  which  worked 
serious  injury  to  the  purity  of  the  Gospel  as 
revealed  in  the  Bible.  Luther  may  not  have 
been  conscious  of  it,  but  we  see  it  now,  that 
there  was  no  possible  basis  of  compromise  or 
reconciliation  between  those  who  planted 
themselves  squarely  on  Holy  Scripture  and 
those  who  rejected  it  as  the  sole  rule  of 
faith. 

Martin  Luther  never  departed  one  hair's 
breadth  from  the  principles  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  Through  many  trials  and  trib- 
ulations they  had  become  a  living  part  of 
him;  and  the  vicissitudes  and  discourage- 
ments of  the  sixteen  remaining  years  of  his 
life  could  not  tear  them  away. 

On  the  18th  of  February,  1546,  when  the 
great  reformer's  eyelids  were  closing  in 
death,  Justus  Jonas  spoke  in  a  loud  voice: 
"Reverend  father,  will  you  stand  steadfast 
by  Christ  and  the  doctrine  you  have 
preached?"  "Yes,"  was  the  last  word 
spoken  by  the  man  whose  devotion  to  his 
conscience  made  the  world  a  better  place  in 
which  to  live. 


Date  Due 


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